I'll Show You Mine If You Show Me Yours
by CaptainOfTheRollyJoger
Summary: Hermione was excited to finish her education with the war now over, but along with boyfriend troubles, an overly concerned best friend, being Head Girl and the fact that a newly matured Draco Malfoy was Head Boy, she clearly wasn't going to be in for the normal and almost boring final year at Hogwarts that she had been wanting. Rated M for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

The war had barely been over for ten minutes before Hermione Granger had looked around the rubble that now was the remainder of the once majestic castle of Hogwarts and decided she was going to go back and finish her final year of schooling.

There was a mass tidy up effort and by some sort of miracle, by the first of September Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was returned to its former glory and once again ready to open its doors to its students; including the now eighth years—a year group made up entirely of students returning to complete their education without the war standing in the way.

Hermione found herself sat in the last carriage on the Hogwarts express all on her own, curled up by the window with an old, tattered copy of one of her favourite Muggle novels. She had been sat in the carriage since around 8am, regardless of the fact that the train wouldn't leave platform 9¾ until precisely 11am—she was determined to secure her friends and herself the best seats for the long journey to the castle. She was just trying to do everything in her power to ensure they all had the most wonderful last year experience that they were all deprived of the previous year.

However, she had also gotten there so early because she just needed a bit of time alone for the time being to wrap her head around a few things before the year started.

The summer has been far from peaceful; full of reunions, funerals, captures of the remaining death eaters and repairs. As much as she'd almost been grateful for all the distractions, there was no way of avoiding how she'd felt, the pain they'd all gone through, the exhaustion of always having to be strong and the strangeness of constantly feeling lonely even though she was permanently surrounded by the people who loved her.

More often than not, Hermione simply found herself feeling very overwhelmed and confused, which, for a girl who exercised control in almost all aspects of her life, was very intimidating.

Additionally, to make the situation even worse, things between the Golden Trio had been very different since the end of the war and nobody really knew how to explain it.

Nothing had really changed between Hermione and Harry—their relationship was stronger than ever. There was no way they could have ever come out of the previous year any different due to the months alone in the middle of nowhere in a tent. Harry was her rock and her best friend, but it was obvious that the closeness between them was still an issue for Ron. No matter how many times he was told he was being ridiculous, he would not listen to either of them and end up angry with them for sometimes days at a time; he was as stubborn as a mule, and that wasn't about to change at any time soon.

In fact, when she thought about it, the main cause of most of the differences that were occurring recently was because of the romantic relationship between Ronald and herself which was still very much in its early stages.

They had officially been an item since their sudden and passionate kiss during the Battle of Hogwarts, much to Hermione's happiness after being in love with him secretly for years. But now, things just didn't seem right and their relationship was nowhere near the bliss she had imagined it to be.

Truthfully, both she and Harry thought since becoming a war hero, Ronald's head had inflated so much that it was due to explode at any second.

Ron had always loved being the centre of attention due to being one of many Weasley children, but he seemed to have taken this to a whole new level. He was constantly doing interviews for the papers, posing for photographs in the street, signing autographs for fans and stopping to talk to any reporter who attempted to approach them. Once, he even went so far as to invite someone over from the Daily Prophet to the Burrow so they could write an article that was to be titled _'A Day in the Life of the Golden Trio'_ , without asking anybody beforehand if they wanted to participate. Thankfully the article was never published as Molly had been so furious at her youngest son that he'd embarrassingly enough been sent to his room and the reporter was thrown out before he'd even had chance to take his hat and coat off.

Sadly though, his atrocious behaviour had given Hermione the suspicion that he was only in a relationship with her because of all the attention it brought along with it. It was no secret that he loved bragging that he was the one to have won her heart in the end and not Harry Potter—the Chosen One. Not that anybody within their circle seemed to care, mind, they simply reminded him that Harry Potter only seemed interested in Ginny – his baby sister – and that always succeeded in knocking him down a peg or two for a minute or so.

She was sad to admit it, but she just didn't feel like the spark was there anymore between the two of them, regardless to how everybody was always going on about how they were perfect together and that they'd be getting married within a few short years. He did not make her feel good about herself or treat her in any way that suggested he truly loved her. It was as if now that he'd won his _prize_ , he'd simply given up trying to woo her anymore – not that he'd done an awful lot of that to begin with anyways – just expecting that this was the way things were going to stay from now on.

All in all, Ron had caused a bit of a rift between things for the trio and it was only because that he'd been their friend for years now that they put up with every mistake he made.

When it got around 10am, the station began to fill with all of the students attending Hogwarts that year and their parents all saying their goodbyes on the platform. Trunks were loaded onto the train and children hugged their parents, promising to write soon. Friends were reunited after the summer and everybody seemed to be truly excited for the new school year.

Hermione had just begun to wonder where abouts Harry and Ron were and why they hadn't joined her yet when it happened.

Draco Malfoy burst unexpectedly into Hermione's compartment, slamming the door closed behind him without checking if there was anybody else in there with him. He slid down onto the floor in relief and put his head in his hands, his blond hair flopping down to cover the rest of his face.

Hermione sat there at first in complete silence, partly due to the shock of the sudden appearance of the boy – now man – who had caused her so much grief throughout her school years and had to her knowledge been one of Voldemort's' Death Eaters, due to the fact he'd gotten off scot-free at his trial mostly because of the testimony herself and Harry did on his behalf.

She did not want to break the silence through fear of startling him and triggering the abuse and potential dangers that he possessed, but also because he looked as though he'd grown tired and weary since the last time she'd seen him. He looked as if he'd been to hell and back over and over again and was only just able to relax for the first time; slumped with his back against the compartment door.

After a few more moments though Hermione was done waiting for him to notice her on his own, and made a show of loudly closing the book on her lap, making just enough noise to startle the Slytherin only a few small metres away from her.

He shot up in half an instant, his wand in Hermione's face so fast she only just had chance to grab her own for protection. She didn't, however, point it at him to copy his stance, she merely held it tightly to herself on her lap. There was no way Malfoy would be stupid enough to attack her on a train full of people, especially since it hadn't even left the station yet.

She hadn't meant to startle him as much as that, only inform him of her presence, but clearly, she had overlooked the fact that he was a victim of war – just like she was – and had reflexes of paranoia to show for it.

There was no noise within the carriage as they both looked at each other, which quickly turned into an even worse awkward silence and Hermione sighed to herself, realising that she was right and she absolutely would not need to use her wand. If he was going to attack her, he would have done it by now.

"Put the wand away," she said assertively and moved slightly to put her book in her bag before turning to look at the blonde again.

He still had his wand pointed at her.

"I'm not kidding, Malfoy. Besides, even if you don't send a hex flying my way you could still manage to take one of my eyes out."

"Why don't you think I'd hex you, Granger?" he challenged her in a way that was probably supposed to seem vicious.

"Because I don't think you have it in you anymore," she replied after a seconds thought, examining him carefully to make sure she hadn't misjudged him and he was preparing himself to send a particularly nasty jinx at her.

However, he then slowly began to drop his arm and then stowed his wand into his pocket. He looked back at her with an expression on his face that she was unable to place, but for once in the whole time she'd known him, he wasn't looking at her with any trace of disgust, not even a slight sneer.

"Maybe you're right…or maybe I just don't feel like wasting my energies on you, you d—"

"SHUT THE FUCK UP AND GET THE HELL AWAY FROM MY GIRLFRIED, MALFOY!"

Harry and Ron came barrelling into the compartment, Ron in front, his wand out, ready to hex the pale man out of his mind. But it appeared that Hermione didn't need a bodyguard and she was more than capable of handling the Slytherin prince.

"Shit Granger, I think you've broken my nose!" he screamed, being result to one of Hermione's right hooks for the second time. And her technique had massively improved since the incident in third year.

"What were you about to call me? A dirty Mudblood, Malfoy? Is that it? Well, luckily for you, I don't need reminding about that little thing anymore, especially not since your Aunt Bella left me a permanent reminder!" She rolled up her sleeve and thrust the scarred part of her arm in his face, so filled with anger in that moment that she'd failed to realise the lack of malice in his voice as he'd been cut off from finishing his sentence, so they'd not actually heard that word leave his lips before she'd punched him aggressively.

Draco flinched as she held out her arm demanding for him to see the word engraved onto it forever from a distance, but he surprised them all by gently reaching forwards and lightly running his fingers over the word etched into her skin, almost as if he was transfixed.

"I suggest you leave now, Malfoy," Harry said suddenly, grabbing hold of Hermione's other arm that was dangling by her side and using it to pull her away from the Slytherin and causing her scarred arm to drop out of his loose grip.

"I wasn't going to call you… _that word_ actually, Granger. What I was going to call you was 'damned know-it-all' because last time I checked, you were one," he said calmly in reply, trying and failing to hide how shook he was at seeing her angry scar standing out in contrast against her pale skin. "Maybe you shouldn't all jump to conclusions so fast, I'm not the nasty prejudiced boy who called you names anymore, I've done a lot of growing up, just as much as you all, I'd wager." He gave one more look at each of the Golden Trio, finally focusing on Hermione last, looking her straight in the eyes before turning and leaving the compartment without another word.

Hermione was left in an extreme state of confusion as she tried to figure out what on earth had just happened. She looked down at her scar briefly before yanking her jumper sleeve back down over it to cover it, she hated the damned thing; and it was her battle wound, so to speak. Her constant reminder of the war and its toll on all the Muggleborn's- like herself. Most of the time she forgot it was there, but she couldn't avoid it. They'd tried everything to get rid of it, to cover it even, but the mark would never leave her skin. She was stuck with it for good.

Harry saw her examining her scar with distaste and he sighed before pulling her into a friendly hug. "You know we tried everything to get rid of it, Mione, try to think on the bright side, at least we match now," he smiled as she pulled back to look at him in confusion as he poked at the lightning bolt on his forehead.

Hermione laughed at her best friend and then moved to sit back down again next to her boyfriend who was being uncharacteristically quiet for some reason. He didn't look massively happy and when she sat next to him, he did everything he could to avoid looking at her.

"What's wrong, Ronald?"

"You let him touch you. You let that filthy ferret put his hands on you. You encouraged him!" he angrily turned to glare at her before standing up and storming out of the carriage.

"Ron, wait!" Hermione stood up to go after him but the door slid shut in her face and she knew running down the hallways after him and causing a scene would do no good at all.

"He'll come around, don't worry," Harry reassured her. "He always does eventually."

"Honestly though Harry, I'm getting sick of it. I don't know if this relationship is going to last much longer if he carries on the way he's going. I am not some stupid fling who he can dominate and boss around. I'm not Lavender." Hermione sat back down in the seat she had previously claimed by the window and pulled out her book from her bag again, just as she did so the train started moving and the platform began to disappear from outside the window.

"Never mind all that now though, Mione," Harry said a slow and wide grin spreading over his face. "We're on our way home."

The sorting ceremony was unusually short, not many students having returned after the war for various reasons and there was a considerable fall in the amount of trembling first years that normally would have stood outside the Great Hall's doors waiting to be sorted.

Ron had continued to sulk for the whole of the feast and was stull furiously ignoring both Hermione and Harry too – as he had decided to side with her instead.

With all the drama that had already occurred, so far it had basically slipped Hermione's mind that she would not be returning to Gryffindor Tower with her friends this year after the feast. No, as the new Head Girl she had her own private quarters to share with the Head Boy, whomever that may be. She had been overjoyed when she received the letter by owl in the summer holidays to give her the news and had eagerly owled Harry immediately to ask if he'd got his letter yet for Head Boy, but he had received no such letter and didn't even seem upset about. He was looking forward to a peaceful year when he could simply be himself and focus on his NEWTS, he didn't want extra responsibility.

So, it was still a mystery as to whom the Head Boy was and who she would be living with for the entire school year.

Hermione said goodbye to her friends at the entrance to the Great Hall as they all departed for bed before turning to walk the opposite way down the hall and towards her new common room, still no sign of the Head Boy. The halls were very quiet the further she walked away from the feast, the Heads common room being in the most isolated part of the castle, away from all the other common rooms and any students who would accidentally wander into the secret location of the private dorm.

Finally, Hermione found herself stood in front of the concealed portrait. It was hidden behind a large tapestry, so Hermione slipped behind the heavy material and found herself down a dimly lit passageway. She walked down the passage briskly, not fully enjoying the dark and not knowing where she was and she finally came face to face to the entrance to the Heads dormitories.

The portrait had a majestic lioness on it and she was regally strolling around inside her frame. She looked Hermione right in the eye and nodded her head slowly, as if to recognise the Gryffindor girl stood in front of her. Hermione went to put her hand in the centre of the portrait but she passed straight through, as if there was nothing in the way of the entrance. So, just like she did at platform 9¾ hours ago, she stepped forwards and was taken straight through the canvas and into a cosy and gently lit room, completely failing to notice the silver and green snake slither across the bottom of the portrait and settle next to the lioness.

The new common room was gorgeous, as was Hermione's new sun facing room with large bay windows opening out onto a secret terrace garden that truly was magical. She knew she would be completely comfortable here.

As for the mystery around who the Head Boy was, she still was none the wiser. The colour scheme gave nothing away as the whole common room was decorated in neutral shades of brown and crème and it was only Hermione's personal quarters that reflected her house colours of red and gold. Hermione was certain that her new roommate entered the common room whilst she was outside on the terrace, but by the time she had gone back inside she could hear a shower running from the next room.

Hermione sat down on her new bed and sighed, enjoying the peace and quiet, just listening to the shower running until her peace was ruined by a large owl pecking on her window with its beak, an envelope strapped to its leg. She did not recognise the bird, but let it in nevertheless. The creature swooped in, let Hermione untie its load and it was gone again into the dark.

The letter-sized package felt heavy in her hand, more so than just a single piece of parchment would have done. Curious to see what was inside the envelope, Hermione tore into the corner and slid the contents out over her bed sheets.

What she saw splayed out in front of her was enough to make her turn ghostly pale and shake in anger.

Sprawled out over her bed were several images of Ron in a small alcove with a woman and they were in the process of undressing each other. With the images was a very brief handwritten note: _I just thought you should know how your boyfriend is spending his first night back in the castle._

Hermione was horrified, but instead of being sad and mournful like she probably should have been, she was just filled with blind anger. She had not been happy in her relationship with the youngest Weasley male, yet she had not done anything about it through not wanting to hurt his feelings – they had been best friends since first year after all – but this…this clearly showed that Ron had not bothered to show Hermione the same decency. And he'd been the one to get mad earlier about Malfoy _poking her arm_ of all things.

She furiously gathered up all the images and threw them on her desk, who on earth would send her photographs like this? Somebody concerned for her happiness, or someone just trying to be destructive and make her miserable? Either way, she would try and forget about them for now. The shower had stopped running and the bathroom was now vacated which meant she could finally take a shower of her own.

She stripped out of her robes in record speed time, desperate to feel the warm water trickling on her skin, and quickly entered the bathroom through the door that took her into the shared space – clearly the Head Boy had his own entrance that led in through his own room.

Once she was under the water she felt all the tension in her body just melt away, it was pure heaven and it enabled her to view the Ron situation with a clear head.

They needed to break up, that was clear to her now, things just hadn't been working for a multitude of reasons and they just weren't suited to being a couple at all. But first, Hermione almost wanted to make Ron suffer for daring to cheat on her. Nothing majorly damaging, but something enough to make it clear that nobody treated her in such a way as he had, regardless of how long they'd been friends for.

Hermione turned off the water after she'd finished her cleaning routine, stepped out the shower and wrapped herself in a fluffy white towel she found hanging up on the heated towel rail. She sang quietly to herself as she wandered back into her room before cursing, realising her trunk containing all of her belongings was still in the common room outside as she'd forgotten to bring it through earlier.

She wrapped the towel more tightly around herself before gingerly stepping into the warm room, not taking her eyes off the floor, sneaking towards her trunk, hoping if she stayed quiet there was no reason anybody would hear her and come investigate.

Unfortunately for her, Hogwarts's new Head Boy was currently sat in front of the fire, shirtless, curled up in an armchair, a book on his knee and his semi damp blond hair flopped down in front of his eyes as he read. He looked up at the sound of the Head Girls door opening and was shocked to see Hermione Granger, the Gryffindor Princess, trying to slip by unnoticed and unheard across the room, wearing nothing but a towel. She was still wet from her shower and her normally bushy hair was thrown up into a bun as it dried with a few loose tendrils draping down the back of her neck. She was every guys fantasy at that very moment and he was not the sort of man to not appreciate a half-naked woman in the same room as him. He watched her bend over the trunk to try and find the best way to lift it without letting her towel fall with a smirk before deciding to make his presence known.

"Nice arse, Granger."

Hermione was so shocked she forgot to hold onto her towel as she straightened up and spun around to see where the voice had come from.

There was a collective gasp that hung in the air as Hermione Granger stood there, completely naked, in front of the ex-Death Eater and the boy who had bullied her mercilessly since she was eleven; Draco Malfoy.


	2. Chapter 2

Hermione was too shocked to move.

She probably should have shrieked and screamed at him for scaring her and not bothering to cover his eyes to protect her decency, but she didn't. She simply just stood there, her whole body left exposed for Malfoy to stare at…and he was doing quite a bit of staring right then, his eyes obviously slowly working up and down her naked body in front of him.

In that moment, he appeared to have completely forgotten about his past nastiness towards the brunette and his apparent resentment towards her that he had displayed almost every time she had been near since they'd met in first year. She could tell that all his past feelings about her being inferior had entirely been erased, as the way that he was looking at her in that moment…it was if she was a goddess that he was desperate to worship.

Draco slowly stood up from out of his chair, obviously trying his best not to break the spell cast between them. He stepped around the sofa, leaving his book on the coffee table and took a few steps across the room until he was standing in front of her.

There was no denying that puberty had been kind to Draco. His once lanky form had filled out a bit due to lots of Quidditch and had left him with a defined six-pack and strong muscular arms. He had also grown a few inches in height since the last time Hermione could remember really noticing how tall he was. His platinum blond hair was no longer slicked back harshly against his head, it had clearly been left to grow a bit and without the oil it looked more natural and his pale skin suited him in an unusual way, the thought of a tan on his body of any kind would have simply looked strange. This was also the first time she had been close enough to truly notice his eyes and she was surprised to find them a beautifully almost harrowing shade of bluey-grey. Hermione realised in shock that she was very attracted to the Malfoy heir who had spent his childhood telling her how ugly she was.

Still feeling very unsure with her situation she lowered her gaze, refusing to keep eye contact with him, terrified that she would see a sneer forming on his face that would turn into him mocking and laughing at her. She was exposed, vulnerable and without her wand and she didn't know what to do with herself. She could still feel his eyes on her and she immediately started to get even more self-conscious.

She knew she wasn't unattractive per-se, but she also knew that he had seen many women's bodies if the rumours were at all true, and her body would never be anything in comparison to those of the some of the women she knew he had seen undressed before.

Immediately she was horrified with herself, what did it matter what he thought of her? Why did she care?

All of a sudden, a thick and fluffy blanket was dropped down over her shoulders and Draco used it to pull Hermione into his arms, causing her to gasp in surprise.

She felt her naked breasts with pebbled nipples pressing firmly against the chiselled muscles on his chest and her breathing increased even more if that was at all possible and she started to quiver. If asked about this later, she would claim that this had nothing whatsoever to do with anything other than the chill of the night air, but, in reality, both Hermione and Draco knew it had naught to do with the cold.

Draco smirked at her body's reaction to being near him and then leant even closer to her and murmured seductively in her ear.

"You'll freeze to death walking around like that at this time of year, Granger, and that would really be a shame."

With that he turned to leave, wrapping the blanket completely around her, shielding her dignity once again before changing his mind at last minute to place a single lingering kiss on her lips and then he was gone, back into the depth of his personal bedroom.

The sound of the door closing gently finally snapped Hermione out of her shocked daze with horror.

What the hell had just happened?! Or more importantly, what had she just allowed to happen?

She slowly moved to sit in front of the fire, wrapping the blanket more tightly around herself. She had just stood there and let him look at, her amongst other things…

For a moment, he had held her and then kissed her.

It hadn't made her feel scared or uncomfortable really. Malfoy had not been nasty or harsh, nor had he laughed at her and insulted her- and these were the things she had learnt to expect from him through the years of constant bullying.

Maybe, just maybe, he had changed and he really did mean what he had said back on the train. He had grown up too, leaving his father's fanatical crap behind him.

Certainly, the war had changed Hermione drastically; she had grown up extremely fast due to not having a choice. In fact, she had almost completely skipped over the carefree years of her childhood due to the darkness that consumed the wizarding world. She had missed so much. But as had he by the look of things. Hell, he'd had Voldemort living in his home for goodness sake, there'd been no escaping it for him.

Hermione sighed loudly and closed her eyes, Ron was the first proper boyfriend she'd had and it was the first real relationship she'd ever been in- not counting Viktor Krum who she had simply kissed a few times between the bookshelves in the library. She'd never been blessed with a model's body like some of the other girls in their year so it made sense that she'd been overlooked. However, Hermione was no prude, she'd just had nobody interested enough to bring her out of her shell.

It was humiliating though.

No guy ever looked at her the same way they did other girls her age. She was Hermione Granger, Harry Potter's' golden girl, the brains behind the Golden Trio's success, and to be frank, she was sick of it.

Now the war was over, she had wasted the most part of her teens simply studying, getting good grades for both herself and the two boys and making sure that they had the knowledge on how to survive when the darkness settled. No guy saw her as a girl, merely a swot. She was never considered pretty, she was just fiercely intelligent and the one to talk to when you were struggling with an essay, not the kind of girl you'd ask out on a date.

Her own boyfriend had even decided that there were much better options out there available for him than her which did hurt more than she wanted to let on. They'd been friends for years, he was one of the only people who really knew the real Hermione…she'd had a crush on him for what seemed like forever, so for him to drop his pants for the first girl to throw herself at him when she wasn't around was like the ultimate betrayal. It was almost like a sick and cruel joke.

It was because of this that she did not feel even a small ounce of guilt. Ron had kicked up a fuss earlier that day simply because Malfoy had touched her arm, who knows what he would say if he knew about this…he would be completely furious. However, the thought of causing her asshole of a boyfriend even the slightest amount of the pain that he had caused her encouraged the tiniest of smiles to spread across her face.

A loud crashing noise from the Head Boys dorm brought Hermione's drifting attentions back to the issue at hand and it was almost like a lightbulb had lit up inside her head.

Draco Malfoy had made her feel desirable, not scared. He'd made her feel wanted and attractive and he was the first person to successfully manage that ever since fourth year at the Yule Ball. Yet, he was the one to have constantly called her filthy for years, to have made her feel hideous. In a way, his insults only succeeded in made her stronger as a person, but now, it was as if the world had gone capsized and the one boy who used to make her hate herself more than anybody else was now going to be the man to make her feel appreciated.

With a surge of sudden determination, Hermione stood up, grabbed her trunk and dragged it as fast as she could into her room where she quickly dug out her pyjamas – consisting of a baggy muggle t-shirt and a pair of shorts – and threw them on before grabbing the incriminating photos of her soon to be ex-boyfriend and marching out her room until she was stood in front of Draco Malfoy's door and she took one deep breath before knocking on the solid wood.

"Come in, Granger," called a voice immediately from behind the door and she did just that before she could change her mind.

"Malfoy, I need your help with something," she announced, scanning around his room looking for its inhabitant before finally finding him, wrapped up in bed in his black satin sheets. Typical.

"What could I possibly do for you that Potter or Weasley couldn't help you with?" he said quizzically, raising an eyebrow at her challengingly, putting down the book he had been reading prior to his interruption.

Hermione met his gaze and looked into his grey confused eyes for a good few seconds before sighing and walking across the room to pass him the photos in her hands. "Because it's about Ronald. I couldn't ask Harry what I want – what I need – to ask you."

"Granger, need I remind you that I am supposed to be the enemy? Potter hates my guts and so does the Weasel. Whatever it is you want to ask, is it really a good idea? They'll probably never talk to you again for associating yourself with me," Draco sighed, not even looking at what Hermione had given him.

"Yes, but you'd be the one conversing with a Mudblood. So, who'd really be the worst off?" she fired back at him, daring him to challenge her.

Shockingly enough, at the word 'Mudblood', Draco visibly winced and looked away from the witch who he'd seen naked not yet an hour ago, looking a lot shyer and even embarrassed now than he did then. He exasperatedly ran his hands through his blond hair and heaved a great sigh.

"I'm sorry I've been such a royal prick to you in the past, Hermione and I'm sorry that my Aunt…" he drifted off, his gaze lowering to zone in on her arm which showed the scar which she had subconsciously been covering with her hand; so used to hiding it from everyone.

Hermione openly gaped at him in shock. Had he just apologised to her? And called her by her first name for what was probably the first time ever? She quickly recovered her wits and steered the conversation back in the direction she wanted it to be in.

"Look, Malfoy, I don't want to play games here, what's in the past is in the past, now will you just shut up and look at the photos."

He looked momentarily surprised at her blunt dismissal of his apology, almost as if she hadn't believed him to be genuine. But then they made eye contact again and he saw what had really fuelled her response. She was too proud to want to accept his apology as that suggest that she'd been weak enough to need it. She truly was a brave Gryffindor through and through.

So, he looked at the photographs she'd handed him. And in that moment Draco knew exactly what Hermione needed his help for. Maybe it was the cunning Slytherin in him that made it so plainly obvious to him or maybe it was the fact that Hermione had moved so that she was sat on the corner of the bed, her long legs crossed patiently, her hand brushing lightly against his upper thigh through the silk sheets.

"Well well, Granger…You want to get even, don't you?"

"I do."

"You'd be willing to have a past Death Eater put his hands on you?"

"If this said past Death Eater was willing to put his hands on a 'filthy Mudblood'."

"You're not a 'filthy Mudblood'," he said quickly with a wince at the reminder of his words from the past. "I was stupid young and full of my father's supremacy crap. I've changed."

"I can see that. That's why I'm coming to you for help."

"Why me? Go ask Longbottom or one of the other Gryffindor's."

"Neville has a girlfriend and none of the Gryffindor boys would touch me. Not when there's nicer looking girls around."

"That's complete bullshit! You're…"

And then it went silent.

Hermione moved her hand away from his leg and instead focused all her energies in simply just looking at him. "I'm what, Malfoy?"

"Draco. Call me Draco," he murmured quietly, in response.

"Alright, _Draco_ ," Hermione replied, trying to ignore the shiver that ran through her body at addressing him by his first name…it made the whole situation seem even more real.

Draco let out a ragged sigh at hearing it too before trying to pull himself together. He ran his hand through his hair and sat up straight in bed. "Look, if we go through with whatever I think you're wanting to do, there will be no going back. Soon, the whole school would know; the whole world would know. The whole world would think you'd gone crazy. You're Potter's girl, nobody else's. Things would never work with Weasley for that reason. You and him…that's what's supposed to be happening right now. You're meant to be in his dorm on his bed right now, asking him to do the filthy things to you that I'm thinking about right now. Hermione, the last thing you need right now is to fuck a Death Eater."

Hermione closed her eyes and stood up, Draco's eyes not leaving her face for a second. "If you didn't want to do it, all you had to say was no. I know I'm nothing pretty to look at, but I assumed fucking me would only give you another notch to your bedpost, so to speak. You're screwed every other girl in our year and the year below."

"You're not mine to touch though, for merlin's sake!" he almost yelled exasperatedly. "You're pure. You're the light and I'm the dark."

"And you're being really poetic for someone who claims to be a Death Eater." Hermione sighed and closed her eyes momentarily. "I'm just going to go now. I'd just thought… you kissed me out there Malfoy, not the other way around. I'd assumed you didn't think I was hideous. Clearly I was wrong."

Suddenly it was like something inside Draco snapped, he almost growled and in all of about two seconds flat he'd jumped out of bed, caught Hermione before she had chance to reach the door and had thrown her onto his bed and had climbed on top of her.

"Listen to me right now, Hermione, I won't repeat this again. You are the most fucking _gorgeous_ and _sexy_ creature I've ever laid my eyes on, do you have any idea how many times I've fantasised about your naked little body writhing beneath mine as I fuck you?! Do you?!"

Hermione just looked up at him with her big brown eyes open wide in shock before they fluttered closed in pleasure as he caged her in with one hand next to her head, his other hand running down her body over the top of her pyjamas, being careful not to touch any specific sensitive areas, just massaging his strong fingers over her waist and hips as he carried on talking in a hushed sexually charged voice.

"I wanted so bad to just be civil to you this year, just to get along so we could co-exist in this living arrangement without killing each other. You clearly don't even understand how much of a minx you are, dropping your towel in front of me as if I'm not the guy you've hated for your whole time at this bloody school. I almost completely lost it then, I wanted to fuck you right there against the wall, but I didn't. And now you tell me that you think I think you're hideous and that's why I won't touch you?" he snorted in a very un-Malfoy like way, leaning closer toward her face, leaning so he was whispering into her ear. "Oh Kitten, how wrong you are. You're a goddess and you need worshipping accordingly…that's why I won't have you, I can't have you, not yet anyway."

He stood up gracefully, separating the contact between them completely, – both of them trying to ignore the bulge barely contained in his pyjama bottoms – picked up the photos again and briefly studied them before tossing them on the bed next to the shocked Gryffindor who was looking up at him, the surprise still evident on her face, but also the arousal she felt was incredibly visible just by her expression.

"I loved that momentary very-Slytherin urge you just had to get revenge on the Weasel, but you'd wake up tomorrow regretting everything and hating me even more than you already do for letting you ruin your life during the space of just one night," he said almost sadly and much to her embarrassment, he was probably right. She would deny ever finding him attractive, merely saying he'd just been a means to an end. There was no doubt he was the one-person Ron hated more than anybody in the world…it would be the perfect revenge, but also completely unfair on him.

"When I make you mine, Hermione," he carried on, "it will be the most intense and all-consuming experience of your limited sexual life, and I don't want it clouded right now and you only wanting it because you want to get back at your boyfriend for having wandering eyes. When I take you, Granger, it will be for one solitary reason: because you begged me to. Right now, you don't know what you want."

By the time Draco had finished talking, Hermione could feel herself getting both incredibly aroused but also exceedingly angry. It would have been fine if he'd have said no for himself, but for him to deny her what she was asking for because he though he knew what was best for her…that did not sit well with the fiercely independent Gryffindor at all. She was no child, she was capable of making her own decisions and dealing with any possible consequences. And to prove that, she very quickly grabbed Draco, catching him by surprise and pinning him underneath her.

He opened his mouth to say something but he was immediately cut off by Hermione's lips on his, harsh and dominating. She pulled back breathlessly and went to leave – grabbing the photographs on her way out – she stopped with one hand on the door handle and turned back to face the stunned Slytherin who still looked rather dazed by her forwardness.

"I don't want anybody to hear about tonight, Malfoy. I can't have rumours flying around that I'm nothing better than a slut ready to throw all my clothes off at the sight of you."

His expression melted into a sexual smirk and he chuckled quietly before reminding her, "But you did throw off your towel when you saw me, Granger. Remember?"

Hermione spluttered incoherently, her face flushing tomato red, trying to defend herself but couldn't seem to form any kind of comeback so she simply huffed and stormed out of his room, slamming the door behind her.

* * *

The next few weeks were equally as challenging. Thoroughly embarrassed by her behaviour on their first night in the heads dorms, Hermione was determined to avoid any possible contact with Malfoy in which she was left on her own with him. This was proving to be more difficult however than she initially believed possible.

Especially because she had to share a bathroom with the bastard.

Every morning was a highly traumatic and stressful affair and Hermione constantly lay in bed at night awake until the early hours worrying about it. She would have to wake stupidly early in order to get to the bathroom first as Draco was also an early riser like herself and enjoyed showering before going down to breakfast. She told herself she wanted to get to the shower first because she didn't want to use it straight after he had, knowing he'd been stood in there naked. But the reality was much worse and frankly it made her cheeks flush whenever she thought about it.

The morning after the first night in the new dorms Hermione was woken at about six thirty to the sound of the shower running and soft long moans coming from the bathroom. At first, she was immediately worried he was injured, and – like the sensible and diligent Head Girl she was – jumped out of bed to rush in and make sure he was alright. But then, just before she tore open the bathroom door, he moaned again and it became very clear Malfoy was not in any sort of danger or pain. In fact, he sounded like he was quite enjoying himself.

Hermione made sure to run the shower as hot as it would go for a good few minutes to cleanse it before braving stepping inside the glass cubical herself after the Malfoy heir had finished with his morning routine.

So, every morning Hermione did her best to claim the bathroom first, one day however she forgot to lock the door leading to the Head Boy's room. She had been happily shampooing her hair when the Slytherin boy wearily walked into the room to brush his teeth, their eyes met in the mirror and both started screaming, Hermione trying to shield her body from his prying eyes – again – and Malfoy simply yelling because she had scared the crap out of him and caused him to get toothpaste in his eye after nearly poking it out with his toothbrush in surprise. Suffice it to say she remembered to lock that door every single morning after that incident.

So distressed, in fact, about the Draco situation, Hermione had actually not gotten around to speaking to Ron about the photos. She had them locked away in a secret drawer at the bottom of her dressing table, along with her extended beaded bag (used to carry all the equipment the trio needed when they were on their hunt for horcruxes), documents revealing her parents' location in Australia and her few pieces of expensive jewellery. But, due to the fact that Ronald still appeared to be doing his best to stay clear of both Hermione and Harry, it really was made far too easy for her to try and avoid the whole awful situation.

She waited for the guilt to come for what conspired between her and the new Head Boy, but it never did. Not even when the dreams started. Dreams that left Hermione breathless after waking and disappointed that they weren't real. Dreams that she spent the rest of the day reliving in her mind. If Draco Malfoy was half as good in bed in real life as he was in her dreams she was even more frustrated that she never got to experience it that evening when she'd asked him to help her get her own back on Ronald.

No, she refused to feel bad when she knew Ron was still playing the victim, angry at one touch when he'd been doing a lot of touching of his own, expecting her to run back to him with apologies. Obviously, that wasn't going to happen now that she knew what he was up to now she no longer inhabited Gryffindor tower.

Unfortunately, Harry had been uncharacteristically observant recently and had noticed that there was something out of the ordinary plaguing his best friends' thoughts and he was doing everything in his power to get her to spill the metaphorical beans. He had tried almost every trick in the book when it came to figuring out what was bothering Hermione, including offering to accompany her to the library to cheer her up when he didn't even need to go himself. But her lips remained sealed.

At least until the second batch of photographs arrived.

Malfoy had been sat in their common room waiting for her to get back when she entered through the portrait hole after dinner and after seeing her, he jumped up and determinedly strolled over to her and held out the envelope.

"I didn't open it, but the note attached told me enough," he explained straight-faced. "Granger, don't tell me this is still going on, it's been weeks since you found out."

She had taken the package without directly looking at him and briefly read the note.

 _Your boyfriend still playing the field? The Granger I know would have hexed his bollox off by now._

She growled quietly under her breath and tore open the envelope, not even caring that the blond Slytherin was still standing in front of her, just as riled up to see what was inside as she was.

The gasp that tore its way through her sealed lips at the sight of the photographs was accompanied by a sharp intake of breath from Draco.

"That's Pansy Parkinson…" he hissed, grabbing the photos from out of Hermione's stiff fingers to examine them more closely. "And that's her dorm room back in the Slytherin common room."

"Well, that's wonderfully helpful, thank you; being able to identify a girl by her bare arse and the wallpaper behind her makes this so much easier for me to deal with," she snapped, snatching the photographs back.

"I didn't mean it like that Granger and you know I didn't," he retorted similarly. "I'm just surprised. She hates the Weasley's."

"And Ronald claims to despise the whole of the Slytherin House," Hermione muttered under her breath. "The other girl was a blonde…he's sleeping around with multiple people…" she realised slowly in defeat. "He's not spoken to me or Harry since we got to Hogwarts after that whole incident with you on the train. He was furious that I'd allowed you to touch my arm…" she confessed, not entirely sure why she was admitting all of this to the man she'd almost been trying to hide from since that first night.

"He's a bloody fool," Draco snarled angrily, walking away to go and stand next to the fireplace so that his back was to her. "That ginger git needs to be punished."

"You're right, but I don't want to burst into the common room all hell blazing and announce to everyone that he's been cheating on me. It's…it's embarrassing." Her sentence fizzled out, her voice very quiet so much so that she was amazed Malfoy had even been able to hear her.

"What on earth do you have to be embarrassed about though, Hermione? Answer me that?" he snapped, turning to face her again, the fury on his face almost terrifying. But Hermione wasn't scared of him as she knew the anger was not directed at her.

She put the photographs in her bag with a sad sigh and moved to flop down into the sofa, hoping the cushions would just swallow her whole. Without a word, Draco moved silently to sit next to her and they both sat and watched the flames dance in the fire. When she was ready to talk, she muttered out her answer to his question.

"Everybody always said I'd never get a boyfriend, a real one anyways who truly cared for me. I wanted to prove them all wrong for so long and I finally felt…I don't know, wanted? Like a normal girl? I just want to be normal…" she admitted tiredly, letting her head fall back and her eyes close.

"Granger, you will never be normal. You're far too extraordinary for that," Malfoy replied and then she felt his hand take hold of one of hers and squeeze gently.

"They will all laugh at me…saying it was about time he cheated…girls like me don't get a happily ever after. At least not one with a partner included. Don't get me wrong, I don't need a guy in my life to make me successful, I know that. But it would…it would just be nice, you know. But I know I'm too much of a handful."

Then it was silent for what felt like a very long time before either of them spoke again, their hands remaining entwined however.

"For an incredibly intelligent woman you can be really thick sometimes, Granger," Draco eventually said.

"Thank you," she just replied, not asking him to elaborate before standing up and letting go of his hand. "I'll send him an owl asking to talk tomorrow in free period. I'll confront him then. I don't want to publically ruin the years' worth of friendship we've had any more than it's already been ruined."

"Does Potter know?" Draco asked suddenly.

"No. I haven't told anybody else, other than you," she replied, not sure why he was asking.

"As much as I dislike him, having him on your side would probably not do you any harm," he suggested with a shrug, standing too so that he could peel his black sweatshirt off over his head, clearly too warm sitting so close to the fire with it on.

"I'll owl Harry too then…" Hermione started before getting distracted at the sight of the pale stomach muscles Malfoy accidentally showed off as he shirt rode up as he pulled off his jumper.

The two made eye contact again and this time it was all pent up sexual energy, the air between them felt electric and Hermione began to feel her feet moving her towards Draco so she was stood right in front of him.

"I don't understand this," she whispered, her hand tentatively reaching up to touch the side of Draco's neck as her eyes raked over his face looking for any suggestion that his silence meant he was in agreement with her. "I don't understand how I can't get you out of my head."

Draco's grey eyes looked back at her heatedly, watching her curiously to see what her next move would be. But he was thrown completely by what she did next.

She reached down for his left arm, the one that had the scars left of his dark mark on it and he immediately withdrew, knowing exactly what she was about to do, taking a few steps backwards away from her and reflexively pushing her away.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, looking embarrassed with the brashness she'd just displayed. "I just…"

"You just what, Granger? Wanted to remind yourself why it's wrong to feel like the way you do? Remind yourself why you can't fuck a death eater?" he spat at her angrily, causing her to recoil, a fiery look appearing on her face too in retaliation as she straightened her shoulders and made herself stand tall even though she felt so small in that moment.

"No, actually, Malfoy. If you're so quick to jump to conclusions maybe you're right, I should stay away," she replied, grabbing her things and heading towards her room with her head held high.

"Then why would you want to go looking for that then if it wasn't to remind yourself of who I really am?" he demanded, clearly pissed off that she seemed to think she could avoid the topic of conversation by simply walking away.

He was about to yell after her and call her a coward for not answering him when she spun back around and glared at him with unshed tears in her eyes.

"I showed you mine, I thought maybe you'd show me yours. We all have scars from the war, but we can't let them define us."

And with that, she locked herself in her bedroom and cried for the rest of the night until sleep found her hours later.


	3. Chapter 3

It was at lunch the next day that Hermione finally gathered her courage and marched up to Ron as he was busy stuffing his face whilst sitting next to Ginny who – as usual –looked disgusted by his eating habits.

She had walked behind him and, before he even realised she was there, she quickly dropped the envelope containing all the photographs on the table in front of him and demanded that he come find her in the charms classroom in their free period that they had next. She hadn't waited for an answer before walking away again. He'd come if he knew what was good for him.

As she was making her way out of the Great Hall out of the corner of her eye she saw a flash of blond hair over at the Slytherin table and if anything, it made her walk faster. That, was a conversation for another day.

First, she would deal with Ron, then she would address what in the world had happened between her and Malfoy.

So, trying to put the Head Boy out of her mind, she made her way to the empty classroom and perched herself up on the desk at the front so she could see Ron as soon as he walked in. She'd not been able to find Harry beforehand to explain the situation to him, so she just hoped that she wouldn't end up losing both of her best friends through this mess.

None of it was her fault – she'd come to realise this at some point in-between all the crying the night before – but she knew how Ron's mind worked and somehow, he'd have justified it so that he could guiltlessly place the blame of his infidelity on her, instead of his own grabby hands and need to constantly have his dick inside something.

However, she now felt sick to her stomach about the whole thing with Draco. Even though she hadn't had sex with him, she had kissed him and asked him to sleep with her…He was right, she would have regretted it the next day and as it was, she was already regretting what little did happen. Although she'd been angry at the time, clearly, he did know her better than she realised in that aspect.

She didn't have to wait very long before she heard someone running down the corridor outside and then the classroom door was thrown open carelessly and left to slam shut on its own as Ron entered the room, clutching the now open envelope in his hand.

"Mione, I can explain!" he cried as soon as he spotted her on the desk, making a beeline for her.

"Go on then. Explain," she replied calmly, doing everything she could to keep her face neutral and her temper in check, her hands placed gently on top of her knees.

He looked a bit surprised at her non-aggressive approach, almost as if he had just been waiting for her to yell at him for a bit, forget and then move on. Evidently, she was not going to make it that easy for him though.

"Look…it's just been so long since we…you know…and I know it's no excuse, but it just happened…she came onto me, you see, Mione and I couldn't help it…it didn't mean anything…it was an accident—"

"You don't _accidentally_ put your dick into someone, Ronald," she interrupted expressionless, her right hand itching to get her wand out.

"Well, no, I know that, Hermione and I'm sorry, I really am!" he spluttered, clearly trying to work through a list in his head of every terrible excuse for cheating.

"It wasn't even like it was once, Ron. I have anonymously been sent pictures of you with two different girls. I'm willing to bet there's been more than that too and I'm not very convinced by your terrible lies," she told him, starting to clench her fits in her skirt, giving her something to hold onto to prevent herself lashing out.

At the mention of the photographs, Ron threw the bastard things on top of her bag; she'd seen them now, she might as well keep them. "Hermione, I'm sorry, but it was just sex. It's not that big of a deal."

Oh, now he'd gone and done it.

She jumped down from the desk and moved so she was stood right in front of him. Clearly Ron saw the fury in her eyes and went to step backwards to protect himself, but she grabbed hold of the front of his robes and used them to throw him into one of the chairs.

"It was _just_ sex?! Not a big deal?! You're such a hypocrite, Ronald, I swear to Merlin!"

"What are you talking about, woman?! You're acting like a crazy person, calm down!" he shouted back at her, his face starting to go very red.

"You refuse to talk to either me or Harry for a month because Draco Malfoy touched my arm to look at my scar that his insane Aunt marked me with! Would you have been pissed off with me if it had been a man torturing me instead of Bellatrix, Ronald?!" she shrieked, only sparing a second to realise she'd forgotten to cast a silencing charm on the room.

"Of course not!" he insisted, getting back up out of the chair she'd forced him into. "I'm sorry for everything, Hermione. Really, I am…I just get so jealous, you know I do!"

"You never had any reason to get jealous over anybody! I would have been faithful to you for the rest of my life, even if this relationship was basically doomed from the start!" she cried, the truth hitting her like a brick wall. She would have stayed with him regardless of how average things were between them. She probably would have ended up married to him with children before she knew it. Everyone expected them to be together for life and she probably would have gone along with it…but not anymore.

"What do you mean it was doomed from the start?" he asked, suddenly a lot quieter, he was starting to look very pale with a slight tinge of green. "Why would you say that?"

"Because it was! We skirted around everything for years and only got together because we both thought we were going to die in the final battle!" she explained starting to feel the tears pouring down her face, leaning back against the desk again to steady herself. "But by then it was too late."

"Too late?" he almost whispered in confusion, carefully approaching Hermione and resting his hands on her shoulders to try and see her face and understand what she was talking about.

"We aren't right for each other, Ron. All this relationship has done is damage the bond we already had, can't you see that? We both need different things now…the war has changed us both," she admitted quietly, lifting her hands to his chest, trying to push his hands off her, but he clung on, digging his nails into her skin to hold her in place, trapping her between his body and the hard desk.

"What do you mean, you need different things?" he asked suddenly in a deadly quiet voice, refusing her to step out of his grip. "Who is he? Tell me, Hermione, or I swear to Merlin…"

"Please let go, Ron…you're hurting me!" she whimpered, having flash backs to other things being forced through her skin unwillingly as she was pinned to the floor of Malfoy Manor. She was sure he was drawing blood now with how hard he was holding her, and it reminded her of the way she'd watched the blood trickle from the 'Mudblood' scar on her arm…she felt physically sick and her head started to cloud in panic, the trauma of her attack coming back…being unable to escape, unable to move…unable to stop the pain.

"I'm not letting go until you tell me who the hell you've been fucking! Nobody puts their hands on you without my permission! I won you fair and square!" he spat furiously, his voice climbing in volume again until he was shouting in her ear, making her head ring and make her feel even more disorientated.

Thankfully, at that moment the classroom door was almost thrown off its hinges at the force that was used to open it.

Ron and Hermione both turned to see what was going on and both of their jaws nearly hit the ground when they watched Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy both come barrelling into the room, wands drawn—not at each other, but at Ron who had still yet to release Hermione from the death grip he had her locked in.

"Ron, let go of her," Harry said calmly, trying to be reasonable and prevent any kind of hexes being thrown.

Draco simply stood next to Harry, his eyes cold, focused on the youngest male Weasley, the fury radiating off his body so harshly Hermione could almost feel it from where she was standing.

"What the bloody hell are _you_ doing here, Malfoy?" Ron growled, pushing Hermione even harder into the desk, almost as if he was trying to hide her from view.

She couldn't help but let out a little moan of pain as the desk dug into her lower back and somehow this was enough to bring Ron to his senses.

Almost as if she was burning him, he flew backwards away from her, removing his hands instantly, a horrified look on his face. "Hermione, I'm sorry…I don't know what came over me, I—" He tried to approach her again, his hands held out palm facing her to show her he meant no harm, but she distanced herself from him as fast as was physically possible. The damage was already done.

"Don't touch me!" she growled almost falling over her own bag to avoid him.

"Granger, come here," Draco finally managed to order, in a tone that offered no room to argue, his voice so sharp you could cut glass with it. Yet, Hermione stayed where she was, still partially pissed off with him too.

"What right do you have to order her around, Ferret?" Ron retaliated, turning his anger and attention back on Draco as if shouting at him would solve all problems.

"Probably about the same right you had to cheat on her and then physically attack her. But at least she knows I won't do her any harm," Draco replied calmly, every inch the cool-headed aristocrat he'd been brought up to be, but Hermione could see one particular vein throbbing on his neck contrasting against his pale skin that was probably an outwards sign of how high is blood pressure was at that moment.

"You're one of my best mates, Ron, but that was way out of order…I can't believe I just saw you hurt Hermione after everything…" Harry said, trying to mimic Draco's steady behaviour, but not being able to completely keep the emotion out of his voice as he held his hand out for Hermione, who took it without question, deciding Harry was safe ground. "Don't bother talking to either of us until you're ready to properly apologise."

"I said I was sorry!" Ron complained, looking between the others in the room one by one. "Hermione, please! You know I love you, please don't leave."

Hermione had gotten a grip on herself by this time, thankfully, and turned to glare furiously at him. "Well I'd hate to know how you'd have treated me if you didn't love me, if this is the way you think you treat the people you do. We're over Ronald, completely and permanently."

"Well, you know what? Whatever, because the sex was never that good anyways!" Ron shouted at her, clearly not knowing what else to say. "Why do you think I went looking elsewhere?!"

Before Hermione knew what was happening, Draco had stepped forward and punched Ron straight in the face, catching him off guard. His nose made a horrible sound as is broke and blood started dripping from it onto his white shirt almost immediately.

"What the fuck?!" he yelled at the top of his lungs, clutching his nose, desperately trying to stop the blood flow.

"I've wanted to do that for years," Draco hissed at him, his cool demeanour gone for all of a few seconds before he got a grip on himself again. "I'd just cross your legs and hope nothing starts itching anytime soon, Weasley. Last I heard, Pansy had a whole array of sexually transmitted ailments. Let's hope you haven't picked any of those up."

Both Hermione and Harry stood and watched in shock and they would have stayed like that a lot longer if it wasn't for the fact that as Draco turned to walk away, Ron drew his wand out of his robes and was just preparing to hex the Slytherin whilst his back was turned, when Harry quickly and instinctively disarmed him, catching the wand easily.

"Ron, enough. Come on, I'll take you to the hospital wing— "

"Fuck off, Harry! It's clear where your loyalties lie!"

"Yeah, with Hermione as she's the only person to have stayed by my side throughout everything and frankly, she deserves much better than this."

A tense silence filled the room as they all absorbed Harry's declaration and then, without another word, Ron stormed out of the classroom, grabbing his wand back out of Harry's hand as he passed.

Harry was about to open his mouth to ask what was actually going on between Hermione and Draco, when they started hearing movement from the classrooms around them. Clearly that was the end of free period and they all had a class to be getting to. Yet regardless of this, none of them so much as moved a muscle until the door to the room they were in opened and Professor Flitwick walked in, getting ready for his next lesson.

"Oh, I didn't realise I had you eighth years now!" he squeaked, moving to look at his timetable again to check he was in the right place and they then decided that was their cue to leave.

"Sorry Professor, you don't have us now. We were just leaving, weren't we?" Hermione announced, looking between the boys who silently followed her as she fetched her bag and then headed for the door to go to their next lesson, leaving a confused Flitwick and a lot of unanswered questions for all three of them.

"Well, I do happen to understand something a lot more now," Draco managed to say, just as they rounded the corner of the Dungeons after running to get there on time for potions.

"What's that?" Harry asked, panting hard and repositioning his glasses so that they were no longer hanging off his nose.

"I now know why you punched me back in third year for being an arse, Granger; it's much more satisfying than using magic," he answered, clearly trying to refrain from laughing, arching one of his perfectly shaped eyebrows at her challengingly.

Both Harry and Hermione tried to hold in their laughter, but were only able to succeed for a matter of seconds before they made eye contact and both lost it, causing Draco to join in too.

"You're such an idiot," Hermione managed to choke out, however giving the blond man a smile as they opened the door to the potions classroom and filtered in.

* * *

After that, it was as if Harry and Draco had both managed to grow up and get over their year-long rivalry, as they had both sat and spoke to each other in hushed tones at their shared bench all throughout potions. Not knowing what they were discussing had made Hermione incredibly anxious, but as soon as the lesson had finished, they had both walked over to her, waited for her to pack up her bag and then headed out of the dungeon together and up to the library to start on the work they had just been set.

Even now, hours later, as she was sat in her room, Hermione wasn't sure of what to make of their newfound bro-mance, so to speak. They had even gone out after dinner to play Quidditch together outside, saying they wanted to enjoy the remainder of the nice weather before winter hit and it was freezing cold up in the air on a broom.

She couldn't help but to shake her head and laugh quietly to herself, it had been an eventful day, that was for sure.

But Merlin… did her body ache.

She hadn't said anything to either of the boys about it all day, but she was fairly certain she was covered in bruises that hurt every time she moved too fast and she wasn't sure how deep the cuts on her shoulders and collarbones were, but she could feel the now dried blood sticking to her shirt. She'd been careful to keep covered up all afternoon, knowing exactly what reaction seeing her injuries would have caused and she didn't have the energy for another fight today.

Thankful to be in the dormitory alone for a while, she opened the door to the bathroom from her side and turned the shower on in there, giving it a few minutes to warm up before grabbing her towel and shutting the door. She didn't bother locking it though, or the one leading in from Draco's room, as she knew the Head Boy was still out with Harry. She hadn't heard him come back in yet, so she figured she was safe for now to just relax.

She slowly started to peel off her robes, having to be careful not to pull something or rip off any of the scabs already healing on her shoulders. After about a five-minute struggle to get out of her shirt, she was left with the ghastly sight of her upper body once the item had been fully removed. Trying her best to ignore it, she undid the zip on her skirt and let it tumble to the floor, leaving her stood in front of the mirror in just her underwear.

It was at that moment that the door leading in from Draco's room opened and he walked straight in, drenched in sweat, already half stripped out of his Quidditch gear.

He spotted her almost immediately and jumped, clearly not expecting to see her in there and turned his head away, already half the way back out of the bathroom when it processed in his head what he'd just briefly seen and he stopped.

"Shit, sorry, Granger, I didn't hear the shower runni—are those _bruises_?!"

Well now she was in for it.

Not even embarrassed to be almost naked in front of him again, she just lifted her hands to try and cover up the already dark purple splodges and the nail marks too before he really saw the extent of what Ron had done to her. "They're nothing, Malfoy. Can you leave so I can have my shower please?"

"Not until you let me look at those," he insisted stepping closer to her.

"I told you, they're nothing. I'm fine!"

"Like hell they're nothing, Hermione! Move your hands."

She was halfway to protesting again, before he closed the rest of the distance between them and moved her hands himself, carefully, but assertively so as not to hurt her even more. She heard him release a sound that sounded an awful lot like a growl when he saw the ten perfect crescent moon shapes and all the bruising around them that had been left behind clearly by nails digging hard into her pale ivory skin. His breathing was harsh and heavy as he tried to remain as calm as he could.

"Do they hurt?" he asked quietly, tracing a particularly deep cut left behind from Ron's thumbnail just under her collar bone. Hermione hissed in protest before she could prevent the sound leaving her lips and he immediately let go. "Sorry."

"It's okay," she replied with a small smile. "I'm sure I'll feel better after a shower."

He nodded silently in agreement, but Hermione could basically see the cogs turning at full speed in his mind.

"What is it?" she asked curiously, reaching out for his hand out of habit without thinking.

She and Harry held hands a lot and they had ever since being away alone camping looking for horcruxes and it had never seemed weird as they were practically like brother and sister. It was how they showed each other that they were still there and that they weren't going to leave anytime soon. It basically became a method of providing non-verbal comfort.

But with Draco, all it did was remind them both of the night before when they had sat like that comfortably before it all went to shit and they'd fought.

And one thing was for sure: Draco was _definitely_ not like her brother.

"I'm sorry, Granger. For last night and today. I could have chased after you right away earlier as soon as you left the Great Hall, but I stopped to find Potter first, thinking he should probably be there too just in case things got messy, but we were too late to stop him hurting you," he apologised softly, letting his thumb graze over the top of her hand as he spoke, almost as if he was trying to sooth her.

"Don't apologise, you both arrived at just the right time. I appreciate you fetching Harry though, he needed to witness that with his own eyes otherwise he'd have struggled to believe Ron could get like that. They've been friends a long time, you know?" she replied almost in a whisper, absentmindedly letting her free hand reach forwards to rest against Draco's smooth chest. "As for last night…that's okay too. I overstepped a boundary I should have had the initiative to realise was in place and I'm sorry for that."

He lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a gentle kiss across her knuckles. "No, don't be ridiculous, you have nothing to be sorry for. I just…I don't normally let people see it. It's not exactly a part of my life that I'm proud of…"

"I understand…" she muttered virtually inaudibly, looking up into his eyes and almost getting lost in the pure emotion reflected in them.

"I feel like I'm always going to have to be apologising to you," he whispered back in a broken voice. "I keep making mistakes…But I'm trying," he confessed, his voice gaining a little more volume to it. "You can see that, can't you?"

"Yeah, I can," she responded with a small smile. "Stop apologising, everything's fine. I promise."

"Granger, this…I'm not good for you. This…it could never work, could it?"

There. He'd said it. He'd addressed the elephant in the room that had been there ever since that moment they locked eyes on the Hogwarts express back in September. He was right, they would probably never work out, there were too many things fighting against them and they were literally from two different worlds. And although her blood status didn't matter to either of them anymore, it certainly would to his family. They'd never be able to maintain anything in the long run…but that didn't say that they couldn't live for the now.

"I don't care," Hermione said suddenly, a look of determination spreading across her face. She'd made up her mind. "I want you, Draco Malfoy. I want you like I don't think I've ever wanted anything before in my life and yeah, it does scare the hell out of me, but at the same time the thought of it, the thought of being with you, somehow, just makes sense in a way I don't know how to explain. You're all I can think about when I'm lying in bed alone every night and my first thought when I wake up in the morning. Maybe it's an infatuation, maybe it's more than that, I don't know for sure. However, I don't know about you, but I would really like to find out just what this thing between us could be."

By the time she had finished talking, his eyes had turned almost a shade darker than they usually were and he had taken another step closer to her so that their noses were practically touching. He still had hold of one of her hands and the other was still resting on his chest and she could feel his heart thudding erratically under her touch.

"You really want this?" he asked huskily, letting his free hand lift to her chin to keep her head up so he could look into her eyes to make sure she wasn't uncertain. "You really want me?"

"Yes, I do," she replied immediately, not needing to even think about it for half a second. She was now a single woman and she had no reason to feel guilt. He was an attractive man who made her heart speed up when she thought about him and he had unknowingly plagued her dreams for a month now. He had protected her when she needed it and yet he knew that she was a force to be reckoned with and didn't need to be smothered. He'd told her how he felt, but then had given her space to figure everything out in her head without any pressure. He had apologised for all his wrongdoings in the past and she had easily found it in her heart to forgive him. There was absolutely no reason that she could think of for this to be anything less than a wonderful decision. "Kiss me, Malfoy."

"I told you before…" he murmured seductively, looking her straight in the eye, "it's _Draco_."

And then his lips were on hers and it was bliss.

The other kisses they'd shared before had been quick or a display of domination from either of them. This kiss, however, was a mutual battle for control, each of them giving as good as they got. Draco was clearly more experienced, but Hermione made up for it in raw passion, feeling every single nerve in her body come alive.

Ron had been right about one thing, it had been ages since they'd last been intimate with each other and Hermione's body felt starved of attention, so she wasn't even surprised when she started to feel her arousal pooling between her legs already at just a kiss. She needed this. She needed him to make her feel good.

She moaned as Draco tried to slip his tongue into her mouth and in retaliation she pulled back ever so slightly so she could reach forwards and catch his bottom lip between her teeth and bite down, hard.

The reaction it caused was almost instantaneous.

Draco grabbed her by the hips and pulled her flush against his body. He tore his lips away from hers and started kissing down her neck, nipping and sucking on the sensitive skin, whilst his hands found their way to her ass and started massaging it before he grinded his painfully-hard cock against her core and then spanked her, the sound of his palm slapping against her ass ringing around the room.

Hermione let out a delighted cry at the sensation and threw her head back, giving the Slytherin easier access to her neck, grabbing hold of his hair and tugging on it as he played her body like an instrument.

He chuckled at her enthusiastic response to his ministrations, licked a path up the side of her throat and then sucked her earlobe into his mouth before nibbling on it, releasing it with a pop as he pulled back to whisper in her ear. "Did you like that, Hermione? Don't tell me the Gryffindor Princess likes being spanked like a dirty girl?"

If possible, she got even more turned on by his dirty talk and the way he said her name made it sound so delicious she wanted to sob she was so aroused. She literally panted as his hands on her ass started to lower her underwear down her legs. Once he'd divulged her of the scrap of lace she'd been wearing, he pushed her up against the shower cubical wall and then kicked her right foot outwards so she had no choice but to spread her legs for him and lean back against the glass to steady herself.

He then wasted no time getting to explore the new exposed territory thoroughly, as he immediately put his hand in-between her legs and let his fingers drag teasingly through her wet folds, causing Hermione to buck her hips in surprise with a gasp that quickly turned into a long moan as he found her clit and started gently circling it with his thumb.

"Gods Granger…you're practically dripping for me and I've barely even touched you yet…" Draco groaned raggedly, his free hand against the cubical behind her, leaning his body against hers and kissing her neck again. He slipped two fingers straight into her pussy, stretching her and immediately started pumping them in and out in hard and fast strokes, causing Hermione's legs to shake as she squealed in pleasure and threw her head back against the cubical, not caring that she'd probably have a bruise from it later on.

He built her right up to the point where her orgasm was literally about to crash over her before he stopped and removed his fingers.

"No, please!" she almost wailed in frustration, reaching out for him to pull him closer, but he swatted her hands away and pinned them above her head.

"Tsk tsk, Granger," he said mockingly, his smirk firmly in place. "You come only when I tell you to, is that clear?"

She was aware she probably looked completely wrecked; dilated pupils, hair all over the place, and a pink flush to her skin, but she couldn't bring herself to care about her appearance.

"Please Draco, I need you," she moaned wantonly, as he went back to kissing her neck, but this time with a lot less urgency.

His lips moved down her neck, lightly and carefully, first over her shoulders and then across her collar bones, kissing the bruises gently with such affection it was as if he was trying to heal them with his touch. He let go of her wrists and moved his hands to cup her face and tuck her wild hair behind her ear, out of her eyes.

"I think that's enough for tonight," he muttered quietly after placing one last gentle kiss on the side of her neck before stepping away with a serene smile on his face.

"But I thought…" Hermione started, clearly confused at the fact that he'd stopped.

"We have all the time in the word, Hermione," he replied, kissing her on the cheek. "There's no need to rush anything."

"I know, but don't you want to…you know?" she asked, feeling the blush rise over her face, unable to quite say the word.

Draco chucked quietly at her embarrassment and leant forward to press a soft kiss on her lips. "I do, but you deserve better than a quick fuck against a cubical door."

"Oh." She had not been expecting that for an answer.

He did properly laugh at her reaction that time, before pulling her towards him to wrap his arms around her in an affectionate embrace. "As much as we both seemed to be enjoying it, the first time I feel you wrapped around my cock, I want it to be in a bed, thank you very much," he murmured in her ear, still grinning from ear to ear. "Besides, if we're going to try and see if this could be anything more, I think we both need to heal first."

Now _that_ she understood.

"I want to get a chance to woo you, as well as try to make up for all my past mistakes. I would like to take you on dates and introduce you to my friends properly—don't give me that look, they're not that awful," he snorted, seeing her suddenly look at him with large eyes in panic at the thought of meeting with a whole group of Slytherin's who probably at one time or another made her life hell.

"I'll meet your friends, if you'll come hang out with me and mine and be polite, for the love of god, can you manage that?" she challenged, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course, love," he smirked, kissing her forehead.

"No, Draco, I'm serious!" she demanded, pulling away from him with a stern expression. "If you so much as utter one degrading thing about the Weasley family, call Luna anything but her real name or try and pick on Neville, I will, without a question, let Ginny hit you with another one of her bat-bogey hexes."

At the mere reminder of that horrible experience back in fifth year he paled, but nodded in agreement. "I can't promise to be a saint, but I shall try my best to be civil."

"Good," she smiled. "You already did well with Harry today."

"Yeah, who would have thought," he laughed, shaking his head in disbelief. "Maybe he's not quite as awful as I always assumed."

"Gosh, be careful. That was almost a complement," she winked, lightly teasing him.

"Oh hush," he rolled his eyes, smiling nonetheless. "Don't push your luck, Granger."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Malfoy. However, I am going to have to insist that you leave now. I do still fancy having my shower in peace."

She then put her arms on his shoulders and started pushing him towards the door, he laughed but allowed her to direct him. "Alright, alright! I'm leaving! But do remember to lock the doors this time, otherwise I might be tempted to come in and watch."

She sighed and rolled her eyes affectionately, closing the door with a thud. "Goodnight, Draco."

"Goodnight, Hermione," he replied from the other side of the closed door, causing another wide smile to spread across her face as she finally climbed into the warmth of the shower and allowed herself to relax.


	4. Chapter 4

Draco's idea of wooing, Hermione had discovered over the next few weeks, was not a subtle thing like she had hoped it would be. Although, it was sweet that he was going through so much trouble on her behalf, it was proving to get on everybody's nerves. There was no denying that he was trying, but it was becoming evident that perhaps he was trying too hard.

Every morning she had woken to the most incredible flower arrangements waiting for her outside her bedroom door. She loved this at first – what girl wouldn't? – being sent flowers was not something she'd had an awful lot of experience of before, it made her feel special. However, after almost a month and a half of this, she had enough flowers to make her bedroom and the common room they shared look like a garden centre—hell, she could have opened her own florist if she'd have wanted. The flowers must have had a self-preserving charm on them too, as not even the first set had started to wilt yet, so she was starting to run out of space for the new ones.

Thanks to her love for classic literature and romance, the thought of someone spoiling her and behaving like a complete gentleman, _should_ have been the most appealing thing in the world. But, some of the gentlemanly acts he had begun to do were beginning to irritate her, insisting on carrying her books to class being one of them.

She'd felt a smile take over her face when he'd first offered to help – having a particularly heavy haul of the thick manuscripts to carry around that day – but on days when she only had one or two to bring with her and he still insisted on carrying them, it was beginning to make the independent part of her start to get edgy; she was perfectly capable carrying a few books, thank you very much. She had done in for years all by herself and she was even more capable of doing it now.

The other thing that was grinding down on her nerves slightly, was him maintaining to hold open every single door they went through for her. This was wonderful when she had her hands full, but due to the fact now that he wasn't letting her carry of her own books around, she never had her hands full anymore, so it seemed completely pointless.

She had quickly made things up with Ron and they were back on track as friends. He had come and spoken with her a few days after the incident and apologised properly and although he wasn't happy to hear about the situation regarding Draco, he had not thrown another hissy fit, rather just said he hoped she knew what she was doing. But it was quickly becoming his and Harry's favourite pass time to sit and watch Hermione's face flush in frustration every time her books were removed from her arms ("Don't be ridiculous, Granger. Pass those here at once") and then a door was opened all in the same couple of seconds as she left the Great Hall after meals ("Here, let me get that for you").

That was another thing too; everybody seemed to have realised there was something going on between the Gryffindor and Slytherin and for a few weeks it had been the talk of the school. In a bid to try and avoid speculation, Draco and Hermione spent many days hiding in their common room alone whilst the excitement surrounding them died down a little. This time spent alone had highlighted another issue with the whole thing for Hermione that she didn't for the life of her expect at all.

Draco seemed adamant to abstain from sex for the time being.

He had not specifically mentioned that he was practicing celibacy, but when their kisses never got more heated than of a chaste well-mannered peck on the lips, Hermione had made the observation pretty easily. What wasn't clear though, was why he was doing it.

He was obviously still attracted to her, as when they curled up on the sofa to read together in front of the fire he would almost absentmindedly explore her body gently with his free hand and after he caught himself doing it, he would stand up, make some excuse about needing the bathroom or something and leave the room, but not without Hermione spotting the large bulge in the front of his trousers. The first few times she had thought nothing of it, perhaps he just wasn't in the mood, but after it just kept on happening, she wasn't sure why he was so intent on refraining to give them both what they clearly wanted and needed.

"Maybe he's waiting until marriage?" Ron had suggested with a snort when she'd decided to bring it up with the two boys during breakfast, all the while watching Draco be mocked thoroughly by his friends over at the Slytherin table for something or other.

Hermione had glared at Ron and thrown a piece of toast at him in retaliation which he happily caught and started munching on.

Thankfully, Harry was a little more helpful with his comments on the issue. "I think he's just trying to show to you that he's not a bully anymore, you know? Or that he's not using you for, um…that." The dark-haired boy had barely withheld his horrified shudder at the word and the thought of Hermione and Malfoy curled around each other in a secluded alcove somewhere in the castle.

Although, both Ron and Harry had taken the Draco thing in their strides the best that they could manage despite their history, they still couldn't understand what it was that Hermione saw in the blond.

"But there are other ways to prove that!" Hermione had insisted, clearly frustrated. "I don't need to be handled like a porcelain doll for the love of Merlin…"

"Well, tell him that then!"

"Ronald, I do wish you'd not talk with your mouth full."

* * *

Later that day, with the boys' words in mind, she'd asked Draco if fancied going for a walk together around the grounds, needing to get some fresh air after being cooped up inside for what felt like an eternity. He had agreed, but only if she was bundled up to his standards because it was getting increasingly more bitter outside as winter drew in.

After dinner, they headed outside and walked together towards the whomping willow and then found somewhere from a safe distance away to watch the tree without getting caught in the crossfire of its branches.

Hermione was aware that she'd barely spoken since they left the castle and Draco had surely noticed too, but he didn't push or force it out of her why she was quiet, and that was appreciated greatly. Eventually she turned to him and spoke when she had figured out how she was going to approach the situation.

"You don't have to try so hard, you know?"

He looked a bit surprised and then almost embarrassed as he looked up at the tree fixatedly. "I wondered when you were going to say something."

That was not the reaction that she'd been expecting.

"I know I'm pushing you too hard, but I don't know any different… I'm probably the first Malfoy ever who has ever tried to 'date' rather than court for marriage immediately." He laughed bitterly and ran his fingers through his hair in frustration. "My parents brought me up to court a pureblood witch who is a member of the sacred 28, not a…" His words came to a halt suddenly before he could finish his sentence, a horrified look on his face when he realised what he had been about to say.

"Not a Mudblood, right?" she replied flatly, her face dropping, refusing to meet his eyes as he realised his mistake.

"You know I didn't mean it like that, Granger," he said quietly, trying to reach out to hold her hand, but she pulled it away from him.

"I bet your ancestors are all turning in their graves, seeing the Malfoy name being sullied by association with a Muggleborn," she mumbled bitterly, feeling her hands start to shake on her lap.

"Stop it." Draco snapped assertively, reaching forward to grab her chin and lift her face up to look at him begrudgingly. "I don't give a damn what my ancestors would have thought. I want to be with you, Granger, and after all the crap I've been through in my life so far because of my family name, I refuse to let my choices be obligated by it anymore."

"But your parents, Draco…There's no way in a million years that they'll accept this. You do realise that if we stay together to the point of marriage and children your family's pureblood status goes down the metaphorical toilet," she pointed out with a sigh. This – whatever they were – was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. There was no way it was going to be completely plain sailing.

Draco seemed to think about her words for a second, before he let a small almost sinister smile spread across his face. "Serves my Father right, I'd love to see the look on his face as he realised it was _his_ Son to bring an end the pureblood line in our family. Thinking about marriage and children already though, Granger? I know I'm irresistible, but that's still a bit keen. Nonetheless, we could start working on an heir if you really fancied." He winked at her teasingly, but all Hermione could do was snort and give him a dry look.

"You do realise that, in order to have children, we'd actually have to have sex first, don't you? I didn't take you for the no sex before marriage type…"

"What are you talking about?" he replied, eyebrows furrowing in confusion, inching closer to her so that he could sweep a few of her chocolate curls back over her shoulder.

"It's nothing," she muttered, her face flushing pink in embarrassment. "Forget I said anything."

"Hermione, what's wrong?" he asked insistently.

She sighed and then decided to grab the metaphorical bull by its horns, so to speak.

"Is there a reason why you've not touched me properly since we decided to give this a try? I know you wanted to take things slowly, but I didn't think you meant _this_ slowly."

At first, he looked concerned, but then he couldn't help the smirk taking over his whole face as he let out a laugh, leaning forwards to give Hermione a kiss so passionate it left her breathless. He pulled back and winked at her. "I know you want me, Granger. But you're going to have to wait."

"But why? I don't understand, Draco. Don't you want me?"

"You know I do, just let's take things as they come."

"Nobody's going to 'come' at any point soon if you carry on at this rate," she replied quickly without even thinking about what she was about to say before the words left her mouth.

Draco chuckled at her grumpy sounding statement and stood up, pulling her up with him. "Come on, let's go back inside in the warm, my toes are so cold now they've gone numb."

"Fine," she agreed, with a sigh and an eye roll at how delicate he could be sometimes. "You'd never have survived in that tent as long as Harry and I did, it was so much colder than this."

"What tent?" he asked in confusion, starting to lead them both back up to the castle.

"The one we camped in for a year whilst on the run searching for Horcruxes?" she replied in the same tone as his; didn't he know what they'd been doing that whole year they were away?

He didn't say anything for a few steps, but then muttered. "I hate camping."

Then it was Hermione's turn to laugh as she grabbed his hand. "Okay, your highness, only goose-feather pillows and extreme luxury for you."

"Don't mock me, Granger. It won't end well for you," he replied with no real malice in his voice.

"What are you going to do? Buy me twice as many flowers from now on?" she joked with a laugh.

"Don't you like the flowers?" he asked in response, not looking upset, but rather puzzled.

"I do like the flowers, I just don't need that many. Draco, it's basically like a greenhouse in my bedroom. We're both just lucky that I don't get hay-fever."

* * *

Before they all realised how it had happened, it was the week before they all broke up for the Christmas holidays. There was a light dusting of snow on the ground already and it was incredibly cold, however, the Golden Trio – particularly Hermione and Harry – were just incredibly happy that they were able to spend this year enjoying the beautiful snowfalls from inside the castle and by the fireplace in the warmth instead of in the middle of a forest.

Hermione started to get her pre-exam stresses, like she had done every year and Harry and Ron spent most of their free time trying to get her to calm down, secretly thrilled, nonetheless, that the war had not changed her outlook on things too much—but they wouldn't ever say this to her face though.

Draco had managed to tone down his elaborate levels of wooing and was doing great at normal dating. He was also proving a crucial lifeline for the three Gryffindor's as he was the only other person aside from Hermione to be worrying about exams yet, so Harry and Ron were always more than happy to push her in his direction so they could study and stress together.

Although, Harry and Ron were not close friends with Draco, they all did their best to be civil and tolerate each other for Hermione's sake, something which didn't go unnoticed by the curly-haired witch and she reminded them all frequently how thankful she was for their efforts. She didn't expect everyone to sit by a campfire and sing Kumbaya together, but it was nice that the four of them were able to all be in the same space for certain periods of time and for nobody to get hexed.

But whilst Hermione's friends were all trying their best to accept the Malfoy heir into their group, Draco's friends were proving a little harder to get on board; well, just his female friends, so it would appear.

Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott were perfectly accommodating, to the level where it was making Hermione suspicious that they were actually scheming and lulling her into a false sense of security. Blaise especially was particularly curious; he had a reputation to simply hate everyone and everything – especially Muggleborn's and blood-traitors – but that seemed the furthest thing from his mind as he spent a large majority of his time hitting on Hermione and trying to get her to 'jump ship' and leave Draco for him.

"Come on, Granger, what does this blond twat have that I don't?" he teased, winking at her flirtatiously causing her jaw to literally drop in pure shock.

Draco shot him filthy look and Theo snorted amusedly.

"How about good manners?" Draco replied before Hermione had chance to bite back her own retort at the arrogant Slytherin.

Blaise laughed boisterously at his friend and slapped him on the back good-naturedly. "Listen to Draco going on about the Malfoy fine breeding again! Oooh Draco, is your father going to hear about this?"

"Shut up, you wanker," Draco replied, rolling his eyes and then moving to sit next to Hermione on the sofa, who had to try incredibly hard not to laugh at the reminder of Draco's favourite catch phrase from his childhood.

"Honestly though, Granger," Theo started, looking at the brunette. "Why bother associating yourself with a Slytherin?"

"Because house unity is more important than ever at this moment in time," she said after a second to process the question. "I doubt there will ever be a better time to forgive and forget, so to speak. We all endured a war, some of us on different sides, but nevertheless, we are the lucky ones—the ones that survived. I don't think the question you should be asking is, 'Why a Slytherin?', rather it should be, 'Why Draco?'. And my answer to that would be that he makes me happy and we understand each other, it doesn't need to be any more complex than that."

After she finished speaking, the room fell into silence. This caused Hermione to be momentarily nervous and worry that perhaps she'd spoken too strongly and out of turn, when she suddenly felt Draco's hand grasp hers and squeeze gently without a word, silently giving her his approval.

"Well…" Blaise said finally, turning to Hermione and giving her the most genuine smile she'd seen from him before. "We're very happy to welcome you to the snake pit, Miss Granger."

"Thank you," she replied, smiling back at him trying not to make her relief at their acceptance too obvious for everyone to see. "I'm glad to be here."

However, the conversation between Hermione and Pansy Parkinson had been a little more strenuous for several reasons. The main two of these reasons were that Pansy had always considered Draco _hers,_ and yet despite that fact, she still had no qualms jumping into bed with Ronald Weasley whilst he and Hermione were still together.

Regardless of the issue with Ron, Hermione had gone into the situation with a clear mind, trying not to walk into the room already hating the girl before giving her a chance. Yet, it didn't matter how hard Hermione was trying to be kind and give her a fresh start, Pansy was not going to be graciously accepting it anytime soon.

"Why on earth are you fucking around with a Mudblood, Draco?!"

This had been the first thing to leave the dark-haired witches' mouth upon seeing Draco and Hermione together in the Slytherin common room after a meeting with the boys beforehand. She had come storming into the space already furious, clearly having been tipped off to their location and situation.

"Don't call her that," Draco almost growled in retaliation as Hermione subconsciously started scratching at her arm over her robes where her scar was hidden.

"But she is one though!" Pansy whined, almost on the verge of stamping her feet until she got her own way. "I thought we had a thing going on! And now the war's over, I assumed that—"

"That what? That I'd jump into courting you for marriage? Oh Pansy, don't flatter yourself. I've seen all you have to offer and I'd rather not have it offered to me anymore," he replied dryly, not seeming to care how brutal his words were.

Pansy must have been used to this kind of treatment though as she didn't even flinch at his words.

"If you had a thing going with Draco, Parkinson, I wonder if you can tell me why it is that you decided that sleeping with Ronald Weasley was the best way to convince him that you were wife material?" Hermione found herself saying without any recollection how she permitted herself to talk after promising to try and keep calm and turn a new leaf with the girl.

Pansy allowed a hideous smirk to filter across her features before she looked down her nose at Hermione and replied, "I fucked Weasley because he was an easy lay, desperate to feel the touch of a real, experienced woman."

" _Experienced_ is one way to word it," Hermione shot back, feeling her face go red in a mix of anger and embarrassment at the suggestion that she didn't know how to satisfy a man.

And that was only the beginning of it.

Hermione found herself constantly being teased and tormented by most of the female population of Slytherin; all clearly united in the loss of the Malfoy heir's womanising ways, due to the fact he was now claimed—and by Hermione Granger, the Gryffindor Princess, no less. Suffice it to say that all these women were clearly devastated by the loss of one of the most wealthy and eligible bachelors Slytherin house had to offer.

All of the boys Hermione had found herself friends with, regardless of house, had offered to help her resolve this problem, however, she found herself not too bothered by the unwanted attention she was now receiving. After spending so long being almost the mockery of girl-kind, never getting paid any attention to by any guys, it was a good feeling to know that she was the envy of so many girls all of a sudden.

But all of this did nothing to curb her worries as to why it was that Draco was refusing to touch her or let her touch him.

It was no secret to anybody that Draco had gotten around in his younger years and had made his way through Slytherin's female population, and even made a good stab at some of the pureblood Ravenclaw's and maybe one or two Hufflepuff's. But he had never attempted to get with a Gryffindor, even when he'd been made offers by a few of them and he didn't seem to be in any hurry to have a Lioness take up a place in his bed anytime soon.

Hermione simply just didn't understand it; why was he so against having sex with her when he'd had no issue fucking his way through most of the girls in their year and also the one below? What was wrong with her?

She tried bringing it up with him over and over again, but he always refused to give her a straight answer and simply smiled secretly to himself and then gave her an earth-shattering kiss to momentarily distract her from the situation.

Thankfully, she was kept distracted mostly by her studies as the holidays drew ever closer so she could at least attempt to pretend like the whole conundrum wasn't keeping her awake at night.

* * *

"Hermione, are you sure you don't want to come to the Burrow for the Christmas Holidays this year?"

Harry and Hermione both whirled around to face Ron with identical furious looks on their faces as Draco simply sat there looking confused. It was only after Draco spoke, that Ron realised his mistake and had the decency to look sheepish and shoot Hermione an apologetic look.

"Why would she be going to your house for the holidays, Weasley? Surely Christmas is a time to be spent with your own family, not the family of your ex-boyfriend?"

When nobody spoke up to answer Draco's question, he looked at each of the guilty faces uneasily doing their best not to make eye contact with him.

"You three are so similar sometimes it's incredibly concerning…" he muttered, frustrated, before turning to Hermione and addressing her directly so she couldn't avoid replying. "Granger, what are you not telling me?"

"Oh, um…well…" she began awkwardly, fiddling with a few stray curls that had fallen in front of her eyes as she dipped her head, still trying to avoid eye contact. "You're right, Christmas time is for family time, and my only real remaining family are at the Burrow…I just wanted to be alone this year to get up to speed with my studies without any distractions."

"What do you mean your only family is at the Burrow?" Draco replied immediately, his eyes widening as he started to get an idea of what she was trying to explain without actually having to say the words.

"I think we'll catch up with you later at dinner," Harry announced suddenly, standing, grabbing Ron and hauling him up out of his chair and out of the library without another word.

"There's a reason I don't press you about your parents, Draco," Hermione said quietly, looking at him properly with a sigh, realising there was no way for her to really get out of this particular conversation. "I don't want to talk about mine and I'm guessing you feel the same."

"My family were supporters of You-Know-Who, Hermione—I have a good reason for not wanting to discuss them," he replied in a low voice so as not to have their discussion overheard by a passer-by.

"And you think that I don't have a good reason?"

"I never said that."

"No, but you implied it."

They sat and stared at each other fiercely, almost as if it was a competition to see who would break first. Draco was the first to crack, his curiosity getting the best of him.

"Are they dead?"

Hermione glared at him with such force that he literally felt himself being forced backwards by the aggressiveness of it.

"That was hardly a tactful and considerate way to ask such a question, was it?" she snapped, starting to pack away some of her books so she could leave the library before starting a shouting match in the quiet space.

"Are they though?" he replied, holding his ground and reaching forwards to hold her hands still so she couldn't finish putting away her things.

"No," she growled back, tearing her hands away from his, "but that is beside the point."

"Then what's the problem?" Draco insisted, not sure why she was making such a fuss over it if her parents were still alive.

"Because they might as well be dead. Or at least, I'm dead to them, so to speak," she finally sighed, letting her books drop back onto the table and sitting back in her chair, her hands folded neatly on her lap as she forced herself to keep her composure.

"What do you mean?" he pressed, clearly not understanding that he was pushing an uncomfortable boundary she didn't want to have to breach.

"They don't know who I am. As far as they know, I don't exist."

"The Death Eaters only wiped their memories? That's really out of character…and bloody lucky actually. You should be grateful they're still alive."

"It wasn't Death Eaters who modified their memories, Draco…It was me."

The shocked look on Draco's face said it all.

"I did it, to protect them, before anybody else had chance to use them to hurt me, and in turn use me to hurt Harry…His task that he was set was far too important to jeopardise in any way…I couldn't risk it," she admitted dejectedly.

Finally, the Slytherin was momentarily all out of questions as he stared at the witch sat opposite him who was white as a sheet and shaking like a leaf as she tried to keep it together. The admiration in his eyes was incredibly evident as he looked at Hermione Granger with yet even more respect than he thought possible to have for anybody.

"You're a remarkable person, Granger. And an even more incredible friend…Did Potter know that—"

"Did he know I was going to make my parents forget ever having me, in order to keep them safe whilst I ran off with him searching for pieces of Voldemort's soul to destroy?" she cut him off borderline aggressively. "No. He did not. Nobody knew other than me and I didn't tell anybody until the war was over and I needed help trying to track them down and restore their memories…it proved impossible…the memory charm I performed on them was so drastic that it would be unmanageable to ever change things back to how they were before. Minds are fragile things, tampering with them is dangerous to begin with…they seemed happy in their new life, I figured the kind thing to do would be to just let them live out the remainder of their lives in peace."

"You saved their lives," Draco said after a moments silence, recognising the guilt she felt. "You did what you had to do."

"I know. And I would do it again in a heartbeat if it meant keeping them alive," she declared with a determined tone that left no room for argument.

"I did what I had to do to keep my parents alive too, Granger,' Draco reminded her quietly, his voice incredibly sombre. His way of keeping his family together had been quite different to her approach and they both knew it. "You don't have to defend your decision to me."

"I would never dream of it," she replied forcefully. "I don't need to defend myself or my decisions to anybody. I just wanted you to understand and be aware of the situation."

"Spend Christmas with me," Draco declared suddenly, almost as if he didn't want to give himself time to think it over and change his mind.

"I beg your pardon?" Hermione replied slowly, certain that she must have heard him wrong.

"Come to the Manor for the holidays; we have more than enough room to accommodate you very comfortably," he tried to explain in an appealing fashion.

But clearly, he was not doing a thorough job of successfully selling it as an option.

"Draco, you know I haven't been back there since the war…" she said quietly, her eyes drifting down to her scar which was half poking out from underneath her rolled-up shirt sleeves—a memento from her last brief visit to his family home.

"We've had the whole place refurbished," Draco insisted, also following her gaze down to her arm. "The drawing room is no longer part of the Manor…it almost looks like another building entirely from the inside. Please, Hermione," he pleaded, reaching out to hold her hands which were shaking ever so slightly due to something completely unrelated to the temperature of the room. "Spend Christmas with me."

"Can I have some time to think about it?" she replied finally, needing to spend a few days mulling over her decision.

"Of course, you can," he assured her, amazed that she'd not immediately shot him down in the blink of an eye without so much as any consideration. "Just so you know, it'll only be me and my mother to cater for food-wise this year and I'm afraid the thought of feeding less and less people may cause extreme amounts of stress for our house elves—and I know how you feel about the importance of their welfare. You _have_ to come. Think of the elves!" he rambled, trying to use her weakness regarding S.P.E.W to get her to agree with his proposition.

"Using your house elves as bribery is a pretty sneaky and devious approach," she replied, shooting him a dry look at his dirty tactics.

"Well, I am a Slytherin," he grinned, pressing a kiss to her forehead before whispering in her ear, "I never said I'd play fair."

"No, I suppose you didn't," she sighed, letting a small smile spread across her face. "But house elves or not, I still need time to consider."

Draco sighed and leant back in his seat again, realising there was no way he could sway her. "Okay, well please let me know as soon as you've decided. Mother will need to arrange your visit in advance and organise with our head chef to set a meal plan for the entirety of the time you are with us."

"Set a meal plan?"

"Indeed."

"Goodness, that sounds rather excessive…"

"You don't even know the half of it."


	5. Chapter 5

On the last Thursday evening, leading into the final academic day of the school term, Hermione found herself packing up her trunk of her most important possessions with the intention to go and spend her Christmas Holiday at Malfoy Manor.

Frankly, a situation that she never had imagined she would have found herself in before very recently.

Since Draco invited her to spend the holidays with him, she'd spent a great amount of time mulling the whole position though in her head. The positives vs the negatives.

Positively, she would be spending the whole holiday with her boyfriend, away from the school and all their friends—who seemed adamant to try and find every excuse imaginable to keep them from being alone.

Negatively, she would have to spend the holidays in the place where she was tortured and carved up like the turkey was due to be on the day of Christmas itself.

Positively, she would get to know the new and reformed Narcissa Malfoy who was apparently now free from prejudice, due to the fact that her husband was in Azkaban for a very long time as a consequence of his contribution to the war.

Negatively, it was this woman's sister who did said carving up of her arm like the Christmas turkey the last time she visited the Malfoy estate, and although they had many differences, it was said that the two women had the same eyes. So, Hermione wasn't sure whether she'd be able to sit across the dinner table and have a conversation with a woman who would be looking at her with the same blue gaze as she was faced with whilst being tortured.

Positively, she wouldn't have to be alone over Christmas and therefore would probably have less time to be mope around feeling sorry for herself.

Negatively, she would have to be on her best behaviour and be on full alert the whole time to prove she was good enough to Mrs Malfoy to date and be worthy of her only child.

Surprisingly enough, however, it was that final negative revelation that proved to her that she had to go and take Draco up on his invitation. If she didn't, how else would she gain this woman's blessing and also her respect? She was a Gryffindor for heavens sakes! She needed to be a lion, not a mouse!

So, with that, her decision had been made and she had informed Draco immediately, who had consequently owled his mother to inform her that they would have a 'guest' over Christmas.

Hermione still wasn't sure though if Mrs Malfoy knew who their Christmas 'guest' would be or – more importantly – their blood status. If she was being completely honest, she was a little scared she'd be refused entry into Draco's childhood home and would then have to spend the holidays alone at Hogwarts anyways, but with the knowledge that Draco's family were definitely never going to be accepting of their relationship.

She'd been yet to tell her friends of her new holiday plans, however, and she was one hundred percent certain that they would hit the roof when they found out. The boys were coming over to the Head's dormitories later that evening to play wizards chess whilst Hermione checked over their revision notes, so she guessed that she'd have to tell them about her immanent plans then.

Not that she was looking forward to it in the slightest.

Although the boys had all been getting along as well as she could have expected and were still playing nicely, Hermione was still very much aware that they were all basically walking on thin ice and Ron especially was just waiting for an excuse to have another temper tantrum and remove Hermione from anywhere near any of the Slytherin's.

Unfortunately, the rivalry would probably always be there and even though Draco had matured greatly recently, he was still capable of making frequent snide comments and cruel remarks when provoked; something Ron was particularly gifted at.

* * *

"Check mate!"

"Bugger me, not again," Harry groaned dejectedly as Ron's bishop came bulldozing through his King, smashing him to smithereens.

"It's not my fault you're still shit at Wizard's Chess, mate," he laughed, sitting back in his chair and resting his hands behind his head with a contented sigh as he closed his eyes and threw his feet up on the table next to the chess board. "Your common room is so much nicer, Mione."

"Yes, it is. So, I would appreciate it if you could keep your feet off the furniture," she said dryly, walking around the sofa to push his muddy shoes off of the coffee table.

"What's gotten into you all of a sudden?" he asked in retaliation, scowling sceptically.

"Nothing," she replied quickly, moving to sit down next to Harry on the sofa, sinking backwards into the cushions, trying to keep calm and hold back from getting Ron's temper riled up before she'd even shared her news.

The trio sat in silence for a few moments, Harry awkwardly looking between his two friends in bewilderment, not quite sure what was happening and where the tension had come from.

"Am I missing something here?" he finally said in confusion, awkwardly scratching his head and messing up his hair even more than usual. "You two aren't back together, are you?"

"Merlin, no!" Hermione found herself exclaiming without thinking about the repercussions of her words.

"What does that mean?" Ron snapped, his ears going red in a mix of both anger and embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, Ronald, but I will never _ever_ get back with you. We've already walked down that path, before it ended in tears and a visit to the hospital wing," she said slowly, trying to keep calm.

"Only because of your stupid Slytherin boyfriend!" Ron reacted defensively, crossing his arms in a childish sulk.

"Draco only became my boyfriend after you physically assaulted me!" she exclaimed, her voice rising in anger that seemed to have unwantedly gotten the better of her.

"You know that was an accident!" he snapped, leaning towards her now over the table, his face flushed angrily.

"Guys, please don't fight…" Harry interjected hopelessly, but was ignored by both parties.

"I forgave you for your despicable behaviour that day, Ron, don't make me regret that decision," she growled in a low voice that should have brought the fear of god on whoever it was directed at.

However, Ronald Weasley had never been the brightest of Wizards.

"I bet you'd been sleeping with that blonde twat for weeks anyway! And you had the nerve to bloody get mad at me for fucking a few girls! Oh – no, I forgot. Even a dirty Slytherin like Malfoy won't lower himself to sleep with you, even _he_ has standards!"

Hermione leapt to her feet so suddenly both the boys flinched backwards out of fear, Ron finally understanding that he'd crossed the line massively. She walked silently over to the portrait hole and opened it before gesturing for the redhead to leave.

"Please leave my common room, Ronald, before you say anything else you're going to regret tomorrow."

Thankfully, for once, he did as he was told and slumped back into the corridor, muttering incoherently to himself as he passed.

"He really needs to think about things before opening his mouth," Harry commented once the room fell silent again.

Hermione sighed before going to sit in the seat Ron had just vacated so she was sat directly across from him. She didn't say anything for a moment but then gathered up her Gryffindor courage and looked straight at her best friend.

"I'm spending Christmas with Draco this year."

Harry looked a bit started to begin with, clearly, she had caught him off guard with the sudden conversation change, and Hermione could see the very second he realised the implications of what she'd just told him.

"Not at Malfoy Manor?!"

"Yes, of course at Malfoy Manor. That is his home," Hermione replied calmly, trying her best to keep her head held high.

"Hermione, no! You can't be serious!" Harry exclaimed worriedly, scratching his head again in what seemed like pure panic. "You know what happened there the last time we were at the Manor…you were— "

"Believe it or not, Harry, I do remember," she shot at him dryly, cutting him off before he had chance to finish his statement. "I think it's the right thing to do."

"But isn't his mother still living there? What if she's awful to you?! What if she doesn't approve of you?!"  
"I have thought about all those things, but I have to try, Harry," she said quietly.

"I really like Draco and I want his mother to take us seriously as a couple, regardless of my history and my heritage."

"But you know that'll never happen!" he insisted loudly, his voice raised so much that he was almost yelling.

"Do not pretend to know my Mother's feelings and mind, Potter," announced Draco all of a sudden from the bottom of the stairs, making both Harry and Hermione jump in surprise. Clearly, he had descended from his room and had been silently listening in on the conversation, just how long he'd been there however, was a mystery.

"I didn't know you were back yet, Draco," Hermione said cautiously, standing to walk towards him, but he lifted his hand in a way that told her not to bother approaching him.

"You cannot seriously tell me your Mother will be delighted that you're bringing a Muggleborn witch home for the holidays!" Harry asked incredulously, ignoring Hermione's interjection entirely.

"Perhaps not," Draco replied, his emotions closed off completely, "but we shall have to see her reaction upon arrival."

"You haven't even told her Hermione is staying?!" Harry exclaimed, rising to his feet quickly so he was at almost the same height as the blonde.

"She knows to expect a guest, that's all she needs to know at this point."

"Do your parents even know about us?" Hermione asked, suddenly her small voice had been replaced by a moderately angry one, secretly, though, she was devastated that her suspicions had been proven right.

"Not yet, no," Draco replied calmly, his face and expressions cold. "I saw no need at the present."

"No need?! She's your girlfriend, Malfoy!" Harry shouted furiously. "What if she gets hurt!"

"Harry, I'm perfectly capable of looking after myself," Hermione insisted, turning her anger momentarily on her friend.

"I know you still have nightmares about that night though!" he replied in the same tone. "You're not going back into that place on your own, never mind spending your Christmas there!"

"I'll be there, obviously," Draco spat, his mask starting to slip.

"You're no use though, are you Malfoy! You just stood and watched when she was tortured the last time she was under your roof!" Harry shouted, his shaking hands balled up into fists at his sides.

"Harry!" Hermione exclaimed in shock at his biting words. She couldn't remember the last time he'd truly gotten as furious as this.

"Well we can't all be perfect like you, can we, Potter?" Draco hissed venomously. "My mother saved your life, how dare you speak so lowly of her?"

"I'm worried sick you'll let something terrible happen to my best friend, Malfoy! We both know you don't have the backbone to step in if anything went wrong!"

"Stop it!" Hermione screeched at the top of her lungs, hurting her voice in the process. "Stop fighting, please!"

"Don't worry, Potter," Draco said after a second to recompose himself into his hard mask and cold demeanour. "I no longer extend an invitation into my home to anybody. Clearly Granger is better here, on her own, than with me. After all, I _am_ a Death Eater."

With that, he turned and stormed past the both of them, out of the room and disappeared.

* * *

The next day was hell. After the argument, Hermione kicked Harry out of her sight and decided to sit and wait for Draco to come back so she could talk to him once he'd calmed down and chew his ear off a bit due to how he'd addressed the situation. However, he didn't return to the Head's common room that evening, and once it got to around 5am, Hermione resigned herself into finally admitting that he was avoiding her and consequently not coming back.

She tiredly dragged herself to all her classes throughout the morning, stressed out of her mind, hoping to at least catch a glimpse of the blond, but he seemed to have disappeared into thin air.

At least until after lunch when she walked into Charms and found him snuggled up at their desk, having a good old laugh with none other than Pansy Parkinson.

Not wanting to give in to the evil girl, Hermione walked calmly over to the table, trying not to reflect on her face how close to tears she was. "Excuse me, but you're in my seat."

Pansy ignored her at first, making a show of laughing hysterically at whatever Draco had just said, allowing her hand to brush against his arm possessively, before she finally turned around to address the Gryffindor. "What do you want, Granger?"

"I would be grateful if you would vacate my place."

"And I would be grateful if you would go the fuck away! Can't you see you're interrupting?" the pug faced girl snapped viciously, laying a hand on Draco again, this time on his thigh under the table.

Hermione clenched her hands into a fist, refusing to actually make eye contact with the Head Boy, and forced a neutral expression on her face. "If you want to go and undress each other, I suggest you make your way to one of the tables at the back of the classroom. I doubt Professor McGonagall will stand for it on the front row."

Hermione's heart may as well have been trampled over as Draco immediately rose from his chair, grabbed his belongings and marched past her without so much as a glance to presumably the desk at the back of the room. She didn't dare turn around to check.

Pansy smirked cruelly and gracefully stood up. "The chair's yours Granger, consider it a trade for what I've taken of yours."

The remainder of the day was just as terrible, and after the last class of the day Hermione returned to her dorm, not wanting to have to face going to dinner in the Great Hall where everybody could see her. She shakily stripped out of her robes and finally collapsed onto her bed, letting the tears come that she'd been fighting to hide for hours now.

Had he left her the night before and immediately gone running to Pansy? Just like Ron had done. Yet again, that monster had stolen her boyfriend.

Only this time, she didn't want to get revenge; she wanted to curl up in a ball and never move from her bed ever again.

With Ron, she had been upset, but more about her wounded ego than anything else. But with Draco, it had been a stab straight to the heart that she felt would never be able to heal.

She really cared for the idiot more than she wished to admit in that moment, maybe even loved him, and that realisation only made her cry harder until she eventually wore herself out and cried herself to sleep.

* * *

"Bloody hell, Granger. Do you always sleep half naked?"

Hermione's eyes flew open in surprise, lunging for her wand as a reflex, causing the intruder to step backwards to give her some space.

"Steady on, woman, no need to get so defensive, it's just me!"

It was only then that she actually realised who the hell had broken into her room and had been on the verge of climbing in bed with her.

"Zabini?! What on earth…how did you even get in here?!" she croaked, her voice feeling rather sore still from the night before, nevertheless dropping her wand back down on her bedside table and crawling under the duvet to cover up the fact that she had fallen asleep in just her bra and thong on top of the sheets in full view.

"Your door was unlocked and the portrait let me through," he answered simply, moving to sit down on the bed again now he was sure she wasn't going to reflexively plaster him to the wall with a strong and nasty Bat Bogey Hex right that second. "I just thought I'd come and see how you are."

"Well, as you can see, I'm simply wonderful," she replied harshly, turning away from the dark haired Slytherin and closing her eyes, hoping that she would fall asleep again.

"Yeah, so wonderful in fact that you skipped dinner last night and both breakfast and lunch today," he said sarcastically, throwing down a brown paper bag on the bed next to her. "You've got to eat. Potter and Weasley were hysterically pacing around outside, but the portrait wouldn't let either of them in."

"But it let you in?" she asked inquisitively, poking her head out from between the cushions just as her stomach rumbled aggressively.

"Sure did," he smiled, opening the paper bag and aggressively pushing a blueberry muffin in her face. "Now eat, before I'm forced to feed you like a child."

With a sigh, she carefully sat up to take the muffin out of his hand, being mindful not to let the duvet slip down and reveal her bra to the smirking intruder who – regardless of his honourable intentions for his visit – was still ogling at her like she was a piece of meat.

"You know Granger," he started, a seductive smile filtering across his face, "if it wasn't for the fact that Draco would set a seriously potent – and quite possibly permanent – stinging jinx on my balls, I would use this momentary lull in your relationship to get you into _my_ bed."

Hermione snorted and rolled her eyes, doing everything she could to avoid getting upset again. "Honestly, I don't think he'd mind."

"What do you mean?" Blaise asked curiously, taking another muffin out of the paper bag and taking a large bite out of it whilst looking at her calculatedly.

"Well, he doesn't seem to want me in _his_ bed at all, so…"

"Wait…what?" he asked in complete disbelief, almost certain he'd heard her wrong. "All Draco has done since before I can remember is talk about how much he'd love to be buried deep inside your delicious—"

"That's quite enough, thank you," she quickly interrupted, not wanting to hear him finish off his statement. "He's barely touched me since we became a couple, but he seemed awfully cosy with Pansy Parkinson yesterday…"

"Pansy?! You're joking, aren't you?" Blaise almost spluttered incredulously. "He thinks she's vile!"

"Well he didn't seem to mind her when she was putting her hands all over him."

"I'll have a word with him," he said, raising to his feet, "but I'm telling you, Granger, you're the only girl he's been interested in since he was fourteen and I'm not about to let him fuck up everything because of one argument."

"Since he was how old?!" she gasped, sitting bolt upright in bed, almost forgetting to hold the duvet to maintain her modesty.

"You're not serious?" he openly gaped at her incredulously. "Hermione, he's been in love with you before Voldemort even made a comeback, don't tell me you didn't know?!"

"He was a pig to me…" she replied quietly, not sure how to cope with the information Blaise had just revealed to her, never mind the mention of the 'L' word.

"He didn't want to be too obvious in case his father found out…but also he was just genuinely an arse back then…he talked more about your body than _you_ for a while, but eventually he mellowed out a bit," he said with a laugh. "But don't get me wrong, even then he still talked a lot about your…assets," he finished with a wink sliding back down next to her on the bed, back against the headboard. "And who could blame him? You're a gorgeous woman, Miss Granger and I'm a bit gutted he lay claim to you before I could."

"If he's so keen on my body, then why is it he seems so adamant to stay away from making direct contact with it?" she spluttered, feeling her cheeks flush at the thought of her body being the topic of many conversations in the Slytherin common room.

"Beats me, love. I'll have a word with him, try and see what's going on inside his head. In the meantime, might I suggest getting up out of bed and showering? Not that you smell or anything, but I quite fancy the thought of you all soapy and wet under the water," he smirked, having to force down a laugh at the disgusted face Hermione pulled in retaliation to his words.

"Men are gross sometimes."

"You dated Weasley, so at least you should rest assured that chances are you won't find anybody worse than him."

"By the sound of it, you Slytherin's could give him a run for his money."

"I resent that."

All of a sudden there was a loud crash from downstairs in the common room, followed by the sound of somebody storming angrily up the stairs.

"Well, either Potter and Weasley finally managed to get past the portrait, or our resident Head Boy has returned in a thoroughly sour mood," Blaise said nonchalantly, getting even comfier on the bed and finishing off his picnic that he'd brought with him.

"That's definitely neither Harry or Ronald…" Hermione replied nervously, just as her bedroom door was thrown open, almost tearing it clean off its hinges as it smashed into the wall behind it.

"So, it's true then," Draco yelled, his normally calm and detached demur completely absent as he practically spat his words at the two occupants of the room.

"You've got a damned nerve barging in here like this," Hermione glared back at him. He had absolutely no right to be angry with her in the slightest thanks to his completely horrific behaviour from the last few days.

"I've got a nerve?! You're in bed with another man not two full days after we fought!" he insisted furiously, storming right up to the foot of the bed so he was almost leering down at Hermione and Blaise.

"Firstly, I'm _in_ bed, Blaise is _on-top_ of it. Secondly, I wasn't even aware we _had_ fought, you just seemed to lose your mind and disappear off the face of the earth before reappearing latched onto Pansy Parkinson, of all people; so, don't you _dare_ lecture me! Thirdly, what does it matter to you what I spend my Saturdays doing when you made it quite clear that you no longer want anything to do with me!"

Hermione was left flushed pink with fury after her rant and her hands were shaking so badly she resulted to gripping the duvet to prevent them reaching for her wand. Draco looked slightly dazed at her vicious come back, but otherwise maintained his glare.

"You're half naked under those sheets!" he growled, ripping the covers off of Hermione and throwing them over Blaise so he couldn't see and then stunning him for good measure so he couldn't move even if he wanted to.

Hermione squealed indignantly, moving to grab the duvet back to protect her exposed state, but Draco wasn't having any of it. He hauled her to her feet before wrapping her up in her dressing gown that she kept on the hook by the door. He then dragged her out into the hallway and they were almost at his door before Hermione finally got her footing and yanked back against him, stopping him in his tracks.

"How dare you?! Get your hands off me!"

"I would really recommend coming with me quietly if you know what's best for you, Granger," he said warningly, his voice dangerous.

"Back to threats now, are we?" she bit back, trying not to show how upset this whole scenario was making her, finally managing to tear herself out of his grasp.

"Get in my room," Draco demanded, leaving no room for argument. "Now."

"What makes you think you have the right to boss me around after your behaviour from the last few days?!" Hermione exclaimed, absolutely refusing to budge. "I was under the impression that you were done playing with my emotions and my feelings. You made your point, you embarrassed me and made me out to look even more pathetic than I was after I dealt with Ron cheating on me…you win, Malfoy. Now leave me alone!"

"What are you talking about?" he asked, suddenly looking more confused than anything else. "I haven't been playing with your emotions!"

"Then what was all that crap yesterday with Pansy?!" Hermione found herself yelling, regardless of how fragile she actually felt.

"That was nothing, you know how she can get," he replied calmly, as if he wasn't bothered in the slightest.

"She had her hands all over you—!"

"A bit of an exaggeration, don't you think?" he shot back at her instantly.

"No, I don't think that. Seeing as you barely let _me_ touch you, and I'm supposed to be your girlfriend! Well, _was_ your girlfriend, I suppose now…"

"Hermione, you're not fucking breaking up with me because Pansy-slut-Parkinson stroked my leg," he growled possessively, trying to grab hold of her again and tug her closer to him, but she stepped back out of the way just in time to retain her personal space.

"Are you seriously going to expect me to believe that you didn't go running into her waiting arms the other night when you ran out on me?" she glared, biting her bottom lip to try and hold back the tears that were threatening to make an appearance.

"Why on earth would I do that?!" Draco exclaimed, looking horrified at the mere thought of what Hermione was suggesting. "I went straight to the Slytherin boy's dormitory and slept there in my old bed— _on my own_. Which is where I stayed last night too, just in case you were wondering," he added for good measure, but it was clear that Hermione was having trouble believing him.

"Why were you with her in transfiguration then?" she quizzed, doing her best to keep the harsh glare on her face.

"I was waiting for you and she sat down in your seat. When you arrived, I got the feeling that you didn't want me to be anywhere near you…so I moved and sat next to Longbottom so she couldn't follow me, but also to give you some space. I knew you'd be mad because of the night before, I didn't want to make things worse," he explained.

"Why have you been avoiding me then if there's nothing else going on?" she pressed desperately, still feeling incredibly confused and upset.

"You deserve better than me, Hermione. Everyone sees it. Potter was right—I am a coward…but I would never again stand by and watch you get hurt. You mean too much to me…I didn't want to make you feel like you had to choose between pleasing me and pleasing Potter. So, I made the decision for you—something I didn't see there being a monumental issue with until I was laid in bed trying to sleep."

"I waited up all night for you to come back and you never did," she said quietly, feeling a single tear escape its confinements. "You didn't let me explain. You just left."

"I took the cowards way out—as always. I am truly sorry for that, but that does not explain why you were half naked and alone with one of my best friends," he protested, his expression hardening again slightly.

"Blaise came to check up on me! That's all!" Hermione found herself snapping through her tears, wiping her eyes aggressively on her dressing gown sleeve. "He brought me some breakfast because he noticed I'd not been in the great hall for meals."

"Why haven't you been in the great hall for meals?" he replied quickly, trying to look her directly in the eyes, but she stubbornly tried to look away and reflect from the fact that she was crying. "Granger?"

"Because I couldn't bear the thought of having to face everybody and see their pitying looks!" she cried. "Brightest Witch of her age; played and rejected by Malfoy…as if I don't feel pathetic enough as it is!"

"I would never play you, you daft woman!" he insisted, stepping closer to her and managing to wipe away some of her tears before she swatted him off. "You're the furthest thing in the world from pathetic, Granger. You know that. Why would you even begin to feel that way?"

"Because you clearly don't like me as much as I like you."

"Whatever gave you that impression?!" Draco laughed disbelievingly.

Hermione shot him a warning glare as he scoffed at her insecurities as if they were no big deal but he made no move to rearrange his facial features into something other than an amused smirk.

"Would you like a list?" she snapped in response, feeling herself get more irritated than anything else as the prat continued to grin at her.

"Only if it's colour coded," he joked, succeeding only in making her mood even more sour.

"You hide things from me," she started, counting things off on her fingers, trying her best to ignore his sarcasm, "you're secretive, you've yet to tell your mother that we're an item, you refuse to open up to me, you seem downright repulsed by me someti— "

"What?" he interrupted suddenly, her last statement appearing to completely catch him off guard, causing the smirk to fall clean from his face and to be replaced by an expression of complete bewilderment and confusion. "What in the name of Merlin would make you think that I am repulsed by you?!"  
"Because you won't touch me, or—"

"Salazar, not this again, Hermione," he sighed, secretly a little relieved that it wasn't anything more serious. "I've told you before, there's no rush."

"Draco, you have eluded intimacy ever since that night we decided to give this whole thing a try, and that was months ago! There's rushing and there's outright avoiding the situation! If there's something wrong with me, just tell me for Godric's sakes, don't keep dragging it out! I know I'm hardly the most attractive girl you've probably had at your disposal—"

"Hermione, don't you ever let me hear you talk about yourself like that again, do you understand me?" he growled, finally succeeding in pulling her close so she was pressed up against his body. "You're absolutely stunning—"

"Then why do you make me feel ugly?" she asked quietly, almost too quiet for Draco to hear, but he just about caught it.

"You're a goddess, Granger," he insisted, tilting her head up so she had no choice but to look at him. "There is nothing even remotely ugly about you and I'm sorry I made you feel that way."

"Then why won't you touch me?" she asked, absolutely adamant that she would finally receive an answer this time. "You cannot call me 'stunning' and a 'goddess' and then expect me to believe you when you don't make me feel like either of those things!"

Draco sighed and scratched his head before taking a long hard look at the confused Head Girl.

"Just tell me the truth, Draco."

"Don't you remember what I told you on the first night back?" he said finally, realising she was not going to let this drop anytime soon.

"You told me no."

"No, I told you the last thing you needed to was to fuck a Death Eater," he corrected.

"You're not a Death Eater though!" she insisted with a frustrated sigh. "You've changed…things have changed. You're my boyfriend, it's not like it would just be a casual fling."

"It would still completely ruin your reputation to sleep with me," he said flatly.

"Everybody already assumes we've slept together anyway, so that's complete and utter rubbish," she protested. "What's the real reason?"

"That is the real reason."

"Bullshit."

Draco raised an eyebrow at her language but didn't comment on it, instead he simply sighed tiredly. "Can't you just let it drop?"

"No," she responded stubbornly, crossing her arms and looking at him expectantly.

"You're so bloody obstinate," he groaned. "I wanted to make it special, you infuriating woman! I wanted to do what Weasley failed at and make sure you were certain that you were happy…I wanted to be a gentleman, something – thanks to you and your impatience – I am about to severely damage my chances of achieving."

Hermione looked at him in surprise, not expecting that kind of answer, before all of his words had fully settled in his head. "Wait, what do you mean I'm damaging your chances?"

"Well I don't think I can claim to be a gentleman anymore after this."

All of a sudden he bent down and lifted Hermione up over his shoulder. She squealed in shock, desperately trying to ensure her dressing gown wouldn't rise up to reveal her arse and held on for dear life.

"What on earth are you doing?!"

"Stopping your endless nagging," he answered simply, walking into his bedroom and using his foot to slam the door closed behind them. He unceremoniously threw her down onto his silk sheets and then climbed on top of her slowly.

"I don't nag…" Hermione managed to complain before Draco leant down to kiss her.

"Yeah, and my Great-Aunt Walburga was a proud Hufflepuff," he chuckled in her ear seductively, pausing to lick and bite on her neck just underneath her jaw. "You're just lucky that I love you."

Hermione couldn't help the gasp of shock that she let out, her eyes flying open to look at him. "What did you just say?!"


	6. Chapter 6

After Draco's accidental confession, things got awkward pretty fast. He immediately let go of Hermione and moved away, his icy demeanour quickly replacing the teasing and flirtatious attitude he had been displaying seconds before.

Hermione tried not to let his behavioural change dishearten her, after all, she _had_ heard what he'd said with perfect clarity, maybe he just needed a moment to arrange how he felt within his own mind.

"I'm going to go and take a shower…" she muttered quietly, slipping as gracefully as she could off the bed in just her dressing gown.

Draco did nothing but hum disinterestedly in acknowledgement as he moved to sit at his desk and pulled out his half-finished potions essay and stupidly elaborate peacock feather quill and ink, clearly trying to pretend he'd never spoken in the first place.

Hermione contemplated all the new information she had received in the last half an hour, whilst she was in the shower. She didn't know if it made her naive to admit that she believed every word that came out of Draco's mouth, his explanation on his feelings and the situation with Pansy. Draco wouldn't cheat on her—she knew now that she'd been foolish and rash to think such a thing, but at the time she had been hurting and saw the first suggestion of an explanation and believed it without really thinking realistically.

But did he really love her? And if he did, did she love him back?

The answer to that question came all too easily—of course she did.

Somehow in the last few months, the blond Slytherin had crawled into her heart and had well and truly taken up residence there for the immanent future. He was both everything she knew she wanted in a partner and also things she thought she would never want.

He was a literal asshole sometimes, he was grumpy, stubborn, opinionated, sarcastic and a downright mystery. But he was also caring, supportive, patient, intelligent and incredibly handsome. The reality was, he was just as scarred and damaged as she was, and that was okay.

The pair of them were somehow a perfect fit—something nobody had ever seen coming.

She didn't know how to explain it, but she was sure that he was _it_ for her, her person. So, all she had to do now was tell him…which was far easier said than done.

Graced with all the inner Gryffindor courage she could muster up, already blushing at the thought of what she was about to do, Hermione stepped out of the shower, dried her hair with her wand, –not caring that it would go frizzy—quickly towel dried her body and then marched back out into Draco's bedroom completely naked as the day he had seen her in the common room on their first night back in September, slamming the bathroom door behind her almost for dramatic affect to get his attention.

"Was that really necessa—" Draco had started sulkily, only half turning to shoot her a displeased look before he realised what he was actually looking at.

"Yes," she answered immediately, sounding a hell of a lot more confident than she actually was. "Yes, it was necessary. Shall we call it a divine intervention? Because I can see we are going to have a problem progressing from this moment onwards unless one of us made a nonsensically bold move, and let's face it, Gryffindor's are far more prone to drastic measures than Slytherin's."

"Gryffindor's are prone to stupidity…" Draco managed to murmur, desperately trying to tear his eyes from her exposed form and failing miserably.

"So, you think this is stupid?" she asked, raising an eyebrow challengingly, trying not to let him see how much she was shaking nervously under his harsh unwavering gaze. When Draco didn't seem able to form a reply, Hermione carried on speaking. "Well, in that case, I suppose I should leave, after all, Blaise is still in my room, I doubt he'd turn me away after the things he was hinting at this morning."

"Don't even think about leaving this room, Granger," he demanded suddenly in a voice much louder than he probably realised he was using. "If I find Zabini put so much as a finger on you, I swear I'll curse him so hard that his capability to get it up for any Witch will have disappeared permanently, never mind around _my_ Witch."

" _Your_ Witch?" she repeated, crossing her arms over her chest, only succeeding in pressing her ample breasts closer together and she swore she almost heard Draco groan quietly under his breath at the sight.

"Yes," he growled, stalking possessively towards her, " _my_ Witch. _My_ Girlfriend. _My_ Lioness." As Draco reached her, he didn't even hesitate before backing her up into the wall behind her so she couldn't escape. "You are _mine_ , Hermione, and I swear if another Wizard dares to put his hands on you I'll make sure he loses them both."

"You know I don't want any other Wizard to touch me," she said quietly, desperate just to be in his embrace properly now he was so close. "Only you, Draco. If I am yours, then you are mine too."

"You are all I'll ever want or need," he promised her in an equally quiet tone, brushing a kiss against her forehead before leaning down to kiss her lips but Hermione quickly spoke before he reached his destination, completely throwing him off guard.

"I love you."

"No, you don't."

"Excuse me, but I think I'll make my own decision about that, thank you."

"Hermione—"

"Look, whatever you're about to say doesn't make any difference," she insisted, lifting her hands so they were cradling his troubled face, simultaneously silencing him. "I was a mess when I thought you'd been insincere about your feelings, it hurt so much. I don't want to be without you. I don't care about the past; the future is the only thing that matters."

Draco had her trapped again between his arms and the wall within seconds, only this time she had no room left to move even her hands, his breathing laboured and eyes wild. "I've loved you since before I even knew what to call my infatuation, I never dreamed you'd consider me worthy enough to return the sentiment."

Hermione managed to push her hips towards his and press their lower halves together, causing Draco to hiss quietly at the unexpected contact.

"You love me?"

"Yes, I just said—"

"Then prove it, Malfoy."

At Hermione's taunt, Draco could barely contain himself before he'd grabbed her legs and wrapped them around his waist, causing her naked body to press against him in the most delicious ways. In return Hermione squealed in shock, throwing her arms around his neck to hold on and pushed her breasts against his chest as he leant down to give her a bruising kiss.

"You're going to be the death of me, woman," Draco growled, moving his hands to her ass and giving it a firm squeeze before carrying her over to the bed. "You were supposed to let me worship you during out first time, let me slowly undress you and kiss each inch of newly exposed skin on your perfect body…"

His words were like silk, his hands ghosting over her in such delicate touches causing her to shiver involuntarily, something that didn't pass Draco's attention.

"Are you cold, darling?" he asked, knowing damned well that that wasn't the reason behind it. "Do you need me to warm you up?"

"I need you to stop messing around and touch me," she retorted before she'd had time to process what she was saying.

Draco chuckled, amused at the extreme level of frustration in her voice. She had been begging him for this for weeks and somehow he'd managed to refrain from letting things get too hot and heavy. But now that she was here, naked in his arms after a mutual confession of love, how could he deny her anything she wanted?

Within a matter of seconds, Draco had divulged himself of his own clothing and was on top of Hermione, heavily assaulting the delicate skin around her neck and making sure to thoroughly mark her so there would be no doubt about what had transpired. She moaned wantonly under his lips and – embarrassingly – found herself almost whimpering in need as he tortured her, subconsciously grinding herself up against his body as he sucked on a particularly sensitive spot.

Draco groaned in her ear in appreciation as she rubbed herself on his painfully hard cock, trying to get some sort of relief, but as good as it felt, he wasn't ready to let himself be pleasured until he'd had his fill of making the Gryffindor squirm and scream until she lost her voice.

Without another word, Draco rolled off Hermione so he was next to her, grabbed one of her legs and trapped it between both of his, opening her pussy up to him and immediately thrust two fingers deep inside her. Her answering squeal was enough to somehow make his cock harden even more.

Clinging desperately to anything within reach, Hermione was almost at the point of sobbing at the extreme amount of pleasure coursing through her veins. Draco was not gentle with her, but she didn't want him to be and every stroke of his fingers already led her dangerously close to her first proper orgasm given to her by anyone other than herself.

She thrashed around, panting hard, muttering a string of curses under her breath, hips moving back against Draco's fingers as she tried to keep up with his incredibly unforgiving pace. She was so close and Draco could feel it. He quickly withdrew his fingers and rubbed his whole hand almost viciously against her clit so fast that it was a blur and Hermione literally exploded everywhere, a scream loud enough to be heard from the Great Hall tearing itself from her lips as she squirted so hard she almost lost consciousness.

Draco moaned in lust-filled amazement as he lifted his soaking hand up to his mouth so he could make sure to clean up all of Hermione's cum from his fingers. He had never in his wildest dreams imagined she'd be so responsive to his touch.

"Fucking hell, Hermione…" he murmured, pulling her sated body against him so he could hold her as she caught her breath. He nuzzled his nose into her hair and she let out a contented sigh.

"That was nice," she smiled wearily, pressing a kiss to Draco's chest, sighing contentedly.

"' _Nice'_?! That's it? Just ' _nice'_?!" he spluttered incredulously. "Granger, I swear—"

"Fine. _Amazing_. How's your fragile male ego feeling now?" she laughed, moving so she could look up at him and wink mischievously.

"Would you like a demonstration as to how my ego is feeling?" he growled, throwing himself on top of her before she could respond and then swiftly pinned down her wrists.

Hermione barely had chance to process what was going on, until she felt Draco's cock line up against where she was still incredibly ready for him.

"Please…" she whimpered, fighting against her restraints, desperate to reach for him.

"What do you want, kitten?" he asked teasingly, the smug smirk in his voice completely unmissable.

"I need you, Draco, please…so help me, if you stall any longer I'll— _oh my god_!"

Without wasting another second, he was buried deep inside her to the hilt in one swift movement and then he was moving in a bruising merciless pace and Hermione knew it wouldn't be long before she reached her second orgasm.

Draco released her wrists and immediately Hermione was clinging onto him for dear life, dragging her nails down his muscular back so hard it was a wonder that she wasn't hurting him.

"Merlin, Granger…" Draco moaned loudly, managing to suddenly flip them both over so that Hermione was on top, completely changing the angle.

Relieved that she'd been given the chance to take the lead, she began bouncing up and down on his cock, chasing down the orgasm that was seconds away from overwhelming her system. Sensing that she was unbearably close, Draco moved his thumb to her swollen clit and after a few brushes against it, Hermione was shrieking and coming so hard black spots appeared in her vision.

He held onto her to stop her falling and after only a few more thrusts, he wasn't far behind her, leaving them both to ride out their orgasms together.

After a few moments of trying to steady herself, Hermione was able to climb off of Draco and move so she was lying next to him on the bed—both of them still breathing very heavily and trying to recover.

"Well, that was—"

"Granger, if you say ' _nice'_ I may be forced to do something you won't be particularly fond of," Draco interrupted her before she had chance to finish her sentence.

"For your information, Mr Malfoy, I wasn't about to say anything of the sort!" she laughed. "I really did bruise your ego before!"

"Don't laugh at me, Hermione," he growled, throwing an arm around her and pulling her right up against him and holding her tight. "Myself and the rest of the school heard how much you truly enjoyed that, so I know I have no reason to worry."

"I was not that loud…" she grumbled under her breath, causing Draco to snort with laughter.

But as it turned out, she _had_ been that loud and that had therefore created some rather unsavoury repercussions…

After the duo eventually emerged from Draco's bedroom so Hermione could go and fetch her books so they could cram in some last-minute studying before the holidays — still practically naked save for Draco's underwear and the Slytherin Quidditch jersey Hermione had found in his room to throw on – they had been in for a shock when they realised that Blaise was still exactly where they'd last seen him.

Suffice it to say that he had been less than pleased when Hermione managed to rectify his position, whining that he'd been there for hours. Draco tried to defend himself by saying the spell should have worn off by now, but clearly due to his furious emotional – and highly irrational—outburst, the jinx had somehow gained a lot more strength than usual.

Draco had taken his grumbling friend into the common room, giving Hermione the chance to get dressed before re-joining them a few minutes later, her face a bright red colour that would rival a Weasley at the realisation that suddenly hit her that Blaise had almost definitely been able to hear what was going on in the room down the hall. When she tentatively brought it up, Blaise had the decency to act as if he wasn't at all affected by that particular part of the whole experience, but in reality, he was fooling no one.

It turned out that the walls separating the bedrooms and the bathroom were incredibly thin and after some gentle prodding, Blaise joyfully admitted to hearing each and every moan of pleasure that left Hermione's lips with complete clarity. When he realised that Draco looked far too smug and pleased with himself and his ability to impress, the other Slytherin made sure to share with the room just how hard and aroused he had gotten listening in on their little rendezvous and how the sounds Hermione had made were well and truly imprinted to his mind for 'later use'. This sobered up Draco's cockiness, triggering his possessive nature and suffice it to say that it didn't take long before Draco was trying to cast Blaise out on his ass, much to Hermione dismay.

"Draco Malfoy, don't you be so rude! You already owe Blaise one hell of an apology!"

"He's a bloody pervert!"

"To my defence, I didn't really have another option. I couldn't exactly block my ears or leave…"

After a few more minutes of arguing, Blaise decided to leave anyway, saying he was hungry and in need of a good meal after his day of 'torture'. After a few minutes, Hermione and Draco decided to follow him down to the Great Hall for a feast of their own, seeing as they had built up quite a significant appetite due to their afternoon's activities.

* * *

When the pair arrived in the Great Hall, both were shocked at the sight of Blaise and Theo sitting at the Gryffindor table alongside Harry and Ron and they all seemed to be having a very civil and relaxed conversation. It wasn't that their friends had outright refused to co-exist, but this was different. They were happily associating _without_ either Draco or Hermione there to supervise.

It was only as they got within earshot of the group that they realised what the current topic of conversation was. They decided to hang back and listen for a bit before making their presence known.

"…I'm telling you, they were _really_ getting at it! Weasley, clearly you weren't using your tools to the full potential in the bedroom, because she was _screaming_!" Blaise was saying with a smirk, shooting a wink at Theo who snorted in retaliation and rolled his eyes.

"Probably screaming in pain..." Ron mumbled grumpily, stabbing his roast potato aggressively and then mashing it all around his plate.

"Oh no, I'm telling you, I've pleasured _many_ a woman in my day," Blaise started boastfully, "and the noises Hermione was making…Salazar, they were almost enough to make _me_ feel like a blushing virgin."

"Since when do you call her 'Hermione'?" Harry asked quickly, clearly desperate to change the subject. Hermione was like a sister to him and he did not need to hear explicitly about her sexual exploits.

"Since I saw her sleeping in her underwear and she didn't hex me for it," he laughed, taking a sip of his pumpkin juice afterwards to calm himself down. "I think that suggests that we may have moved onto a first name basis."

"She may not have hexed you for it, but that doesn't mean I won't," Harry warned, waving his fork in Blaise's direction in a vaguely threatening manner.

"Oh, Potter, please, I am a hot-blooded man, and she is a very attractive woman. I cannot be blamed for my actions or reactions!" he protested with a grin, starting to pick at his own dinner before it went cold.

"I never thought I'd say this, but it's probably a blessing in disguise that out of all the Slytherin's Hermione could have picked, she chose Malfoy…at least he doesn't run around the castle shouting about his sex life," Harry sighed, causing Blaise and Theo to start laughing uncontrollably.

"Potter, he's been waiting for this day for years. In fact, we've all been waiting for this bloody day for years, in the hope that it would finally put an end to the constant moping," Theo said wearily, immediately spiking both Ron and Harry's interests.

"What do you mean 'moping'?" Ron asked in confusion, looking at Harry for help, but he shrugged, just as lost as he was.

"There's no way you're telling us you didn't notice all this time that Draco's been arse over tit in love with her since she walloped him in the face in third year?" Theo sighed in frustration. "I've lost so many hours of my life listening to that blonde twat going on and on about it."

"But he's bullied her for years!" Harry protested, adamant that the two Slytherin's were having them on and this was all just an elaborate prank.

"I literally just had the same conversation with Hermione," Blaise laughed. "Merlin, Gryffindor's can be so unobservant!"

"He may have hated her heritage until he pulled his father's opinion stick out of his asshole, but he's always thought she was drop dead gorgeous," Theo replied with a shrug, moving his attention back to his dinner.

"We were all bloody relieved that he was moving to the Head's Dormitories this year though," Blaise admitted after swallowing a large mouthful of mashed potato. "As I'm sure you boys are aware, the curtains in the shared dorms don't hide much in terms of volume, if you know what I mean?"

"Um…no?" Ron answered after a seconds thought, not getting where the Slytherin was going with this statement.

"Clearly the Gryffindor's have mastered the art of subtle wanking then," Theo replied nonchalantly, causing Harry to almost spray Blaise in pumpkin juice as he had somehow managed to take a sip at the worst possible moment. "Draco never managed it. I think we all started to have bloody sex dreams about Granger, we heard her name that many times whilst he was—"

"Ugh god, please stop. She's practically my sister!" Harry complained loudly, a pained look on his face. "And I really _really_ don't want to have the thought of Malfoy… _you know_ , in my head…"

"Oh, come on!" Blaise smirked teasingly, "I refuse to believe the three of you didn't overhear any self-pleasuring from each other whilst you were off on your little camping adventure!"

"' _Little camping adventure'_?!" Harry spluttered incredulously. "We were on the run looking for pieces of Voldemort's soul, not on a bloody holiday! We nearly died several times!"

"No need to get your wand in a knot, Potter," Blaise brushed off, finishing off his dinner and carefully placing down his knife and fork before returning his gaze back to the chosen one. "You and Hermione were on your own for a part of that experience, weren't you? When Weasley bailed on you?"

"Fuck off Zabini, you have no idea what it was like!" Ron snapped, his ears going bright red in the embarrassment of his desertion being brought up at the dinner table as if it was a normal topic to discuss over a meal.

"No offence intended, Weasley, I assure you," Blaise replied calmly, having a sip of his drink casually. "I'm just curious about a few things. Mainly, what happened when the trio became a duo—even if it was only for a few weeks."

"I'm not sure what you're asking, Zabini," Harry answered cautiously, having a vague idea where this was going and also not really wanting to discuss it there in the middle of the Great Hall.

"What I want to know is, did anything ever happen between you and Hermione? You were all alone in the middle of nowhere with nobody else for comfort—surely something must have spiralled out of that?" he pried, even going so far as to wiggle his eyebrows suggestively.

"No. it didn't," Harry said without even the slightest hesitation. "She's my best friend and we were both hurting because of Ron leaving. Yet again, Zabini, we were in a tent with no running water or proper food—it wasn't exactly a romantic retreat."

"Don't forget the whole part about wearing a part of Voldemort's soul too…that tends to put a dampener on most situations," Hermione said suddenly before moving to sit down next to Harry, letting Draco slide in next to her.

"We weren't expecting to see you two around for another few hours," Blaise teased, pouring Hermione a glass of juice and passing it to her across the table which she accepted readily with a smile.

"Well as brilliant as sexual escapades are, it would be irresponsible to let my revision schedule suffer regardless," she responded with a shrug, causing Theo and Blaise to snort with laughter.

"Looks like you'll have to work on your performance, Draco. Clearly the lady's life wasn't altered drastically by your lacklustre efforts," Theo sniggered.

"Imbeciles…" Draco grumbled under his breath, aggressively serving himself some food, refusing to talk to either of his so-called friends.

"Look, Hermione…" Harry began awkwardly, reaching for her hand nervously, but calming significantly when she immediately squeezed his hand back. "I'm sorry about the other night…I overreacted."

"It's fine, Harry. You were just trying to look out for me and everything got a bit out of hand," she replied quietly, not wanting anybody to intrude on their conversation. "I would have done the same for you."

"I know, but that doesn't make up for the fact that I was a twat and I upset you," he said miserably.

"Harry, you've always been a twat in your own way," she teased lightly, giving his shoulder a playful shove. "If Draco gets away without having my Dad make life hard for him, he can manage you when you get into protective brother mode."

"Well unfortunately for him, he has me, plus the entire Weasley family to endure watching his every move…maybe I should give him the benefit of the doubt for now," he grinned, imagining the grilling the Malfoy Heir would receive if he ever messed up substantially.

Hermione merely laughed and leant across to give him an affectionate kiss on the cheek. "Love you."

"Love you too," Harry replied, giving her hand one more squeeze before letting go and passing her a serving spoon. "Now get some hot food inside you for Godric's sake! You've not had a proper meal since Thursday and I imagine you've built up a bit of an appetite today."

"Ew Harry, please…don't you start!" she grimaced, nevertheless doing as she'd been told and serving up herself a hearty portion. "And just so you know, Ronald still owes me a hell of an apology. Would you mind reminding him?"

Harry immediately sent a swift kick to Ron's shin under the table, causing the redhead to curse loudly and glare at Harry.

"What the bloody hell was that for?!"

"Didn't you have something you needed to say to Hermione?"

"Oh yeah…look, Mione…the thing is…" he started clumsily, scratching behind his ear, "I sometimes on occasion have the tendency to say things I don't mean in the heat of the moment when I'm maybe, you know…um, angry, and I probably shouldn't have…have, er…well, said some of the stuff that I said and—"

"For the love of Merlin, Hermione, please just forgive him so I can eat my dinner in peace without his snivelling!" Draco exclaimed, interrupting Ron's pathetic attempt at an apology, causing the ginger man to scowl at him furiously.

"Fuck off, Malfoy! At least I'm trying to apologise! I bet you never even tried to say sor—"

"I'll have you know, Weasley, that I _apologised_ several times this afternoon to my girlfriend. _Apologised_ several times in a way that I know you never were able to do successfully, no matter how hard you tried," he replied snidely, a smug smirk taking over his face as he brushed aside a strategically positioned section of Hermione's hair to reveal all of the dark possessive love-bites that she had been trying to hide from their company (he wasn't about to remind her about concealment charms). He very deliberately placed a sexually driven kiss to one of the bigger marks that sat just below her ear causing her to shiver involuntarily before composing herself and swatting him away so she could try and cover them again before anybody else saw.

"Stop it, Draco," Hermione warned, shooting him a look that told him not to mess with her before turning back to Ron, who was the same shade of red as jumper he was wearing. "That was a positively awful apology, Ronald, but I forgive you. After all, it is nearly Christmas and as luck would have it, I'm in a particularly forgiving mood today, for some unknown reason." The following wink that she sent Draco didn't go unnoticed by any of them and everybody laughed at the affronted expression on Ron's face as well as the Cheshire-cat grin that spread across Draco's.

"Oh yes, now _that_ is a complete mystery. I think we'll have to run a few tests to determine the cause," he replied unashamedly, sliding his hand up her thigh under the table.

"I'd like to offer up my own services to be tried and tested," Blaise interjected suddenly, looking far too enthusiastic at the thought.

"Not bloody likely, Zabini!" Draco growled possessively before Hermione had chance to reprimand him herself, his nails digging into her leg causing her to jump a little in surprise.

"Was worth a shot," Blaise replied with an overdramatic sigh. "I'll just have to rely on my memory from earlier to help me achieve a happy ending all on my lonesome then. It's a good job I have a very active imagination."

"Well your active imagination is _actively_ going to get you in deep shit if you carry on."

"Come on, Malfoy, don't be selfish! We've all had to listen in on you prattling on about how perfect she is for years! We've been in this torment together, right Theo?"

"I'm not getting involved in this conversation…"

"Zabini, you know I don't share."

"Spoilt brat…"

"Yes. Yes, I am."

Hermione merely laughed and shook her head at the interaction between the Slytherin's. Typical boys.

After listening in on them bicker for a few more moments she made her excuses and went off to the library to do some last-minute revision before the holiday and her stay at Malfoy Manor. Well, that was what she told the boys anyway.

In reality, she was going to need every ounce of her Gryffindor courage to face Mrs Malfoy and she was very much hoping the library had a section of books that she could study to help her prepare to properly meet her boyfriend's pureblood aristocratic Mother.

Since their mutual confessions of love earlier, it was now even more important to Hermione that she impress Narcissa Malfoy. She was here to stay in Draco's life and if she was to truly be accepted into the family, she knew she had to prove herself worthy and that was something she knew would not be an easy task. But she was more than willing to rise to the challenge.


End file.
